The Head of Policy Monitoring and Evaluation Office at the Presidency, Dr. Tony Aidoo, has described threats of violence by the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) that, if the 2012 presidential and parliamentary election results does not go their way, Ghana will turn into Afghanistan, as empty and conceited.
According to Dr. Aidoo, also a former Deputy Minister for Defense in the erstwhile Rawlings� National Democratic Congress (NDC) administration, the NPP threat is hollow-noise they know they can�t live up to: �Omu ntumi nnye hwee! Omu ntumi nnye foko�, to wit: �they can�t do anything: they won�t attempt doing anything stupid, or they will regret their actions.�
Dr. Aidoo, who was speaking to Alhassan Suhuyini of Radio Gold on Tuesday morning in reaction to a report in the London-based Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) magazine country report on Ghana for the month of January 2012, which sees President John Atta Mills of the NDC as favourite to win the 2012 presidential elections, said the NPP will have no choice but to abide by the results the Electoral Commission (EC) would declare.
The EIU, a specialist publishing company in the United Kingdom, stated in its country report on Ghana, released in January 2012 that, President John Evans Atta Mills is a slight favourite in the upcoming December Presidential election.
EIU said the favourite economic picture of high growth and relatively low inflation was certain to ensure to the advantage of the ruling NDC.
Even though the report said the 2012 presidential election would be a repeat of the 2008 contest in which less than one percent of votes separated the NDC from the NPP in the final run-off, �The power of incumbency will, however, give some advantage to the NDC, especially in terms of spending the early oil windfall.�
But the report noted that the losing side might be less inclined in accepting the results than in previous close-run elections, and this it said, was likely to greatly increase domestic tension that could lead to the outbreak of violence.
�However, the country�s domestic processes are considered sufficiently well embedded to ensure that post-election unrest on the scale seen in Cote d�Ivoire or Kenya in 2007-2008 will be avoided,� the report added.
Dr. Aidoo is confident the laws of the land and the security service are sufficiently disposed to deal with any eventualities after the 2012 polls results are declared.
<<Print>>