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Ghana�s shrewd independent pollster and electoral researcher, Ben Ephson, has called the bluff of loud mouthed zealot in the cause of Friends Of Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings (FONKAR), dismissing that Ernest Owusu Bempah�s recent claims that the outcome of the 2012 Presidential elections will be decided by FONKAR was bogus. Mr. Ephson, who is affectionately called Uncle Ben, also mocked Owusu Bempah�s jaundiced extrapolation that, given the cliff-hanger outcome of the 2008 presidential elections whichPresident Mills won with a close margin of 40,000 votes, there was no guarantee that President Mills could retain the Presidency in 2012. �Those claims are definitely not backed by empirical research, I can tell you that,� Mr. Ephson said, in an interview with The Enquirer newspaper, before he went on to proffer empirical analysis for the education of Owusu Bempah�s rushed proclamation. �In 2000, President Kufuor won the elections after a run-off, but were we not all in this country when the same President Kufuor won the 2004 election with a margin of 693,000 votes?� He queried. Uncle Ben observed that winning an election after a run-off was no indicator that outcomes of subsequent attempts would suffer diminishing returns. If anything, the Kufuor experience showed the opposite. Ernest Owusu Bempah last week on Joy FM issued veiled threats to the effect that FONKAR would use a so-called strong support base on the ground to throw spanners into the electioneering campaign of President Mills. The FONKAR aficionado said the abysmal 3.1% votes that Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings could manage in the NDC�s Presidential Primary was not a true reflection of her electoral value. He claimed that Mrs. Rawlings� poor showing in the Presidential primary was due to the fact that most of her supporters were not delegates but registered voters. ��We will show them where our vote will be in 2012,� he threatened. This claim by Owusu Bempah, in retrospect, mocks claims by ex-President Rawlings, in the run-up to the Sunyani Congress that Mrs. Rawlings was in pole position to win by over 70% of delegates votes. Mr. Ephson laughed off Owusu Bempah�s childish brinkmanship, revealing that research that he and his team had conducted on the ground rather showed that grassroots support was stronger for Mills than Mrs. Rawlings.