Flagbearer of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and former President John Dramani Mahama has called on Ghanaians especially the youth to choose wisely by voting the party into power next year. 

He described the 2024 elections as the most critical election in Ghana’s history. 

“It will determine whether we continue on the slippery path of fake promises, or we take a new trajectory and have people who will come and serve with integrity and patriotism so that we can get our country out of the economic crisis in which it is,” Former President Mahama said. 

Mr Mahama, the Special Guest, was addressing a durbar of chiefs and people of Penyi in Ketu North Municipality, at this year’s Penyi Nugoryiza, their development festival. 

He bemoaned Ghana’s present economic situation and said the current administration, instead of making Ghana a better place to live in as promised, had imposed “severe hardships on all our people” such that people had to resort to a formula of eating one meal a day.  

Mr Mahama said: “Surviving from day to day has become a major issue for many people. And I’m informed of the formula called 1-0-0 or 0-1-0 or 0-0-1. And for those of you who don’t know it, it means the time you eat your one meal a day.  

“You can choose to have breakfast and starve the rest of the day – that’s 1-0-0 or… That’s 0-0-1.  

“And so, the hardship cannot be understated. Our people are looking to be rescued from the current situation we find ourselves in. For many of our young people, the future looks very bleak.” 

Dr James Klutse Avedzi, Member of Parliament for Ketu North asked sympathisers of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) to “repent” and resolve to solve the problem of Ghanaians were going through voting to return the NDC to power saying. 

“Mahama is coming to correct all the wrongs of the NPP so we can have our lives back,” Dr Avedzi said. 

Mr Edem Agbana, NDC Parliamentary Candidate for Ketu North said the current leadership had failed the young people, most of whom were without jobs and were only yearning for the leadership of Mr Mahama to give them hope. 

He asked the former President to do his best to return to power, promising that all the young people were willing to work hard to see to his comeback. 

An Injunction application filed by the National Democratic Congress and four other political parties, seeking to stop the Electoral Commission (EC’s) limited Registration has been struck out by the Supreme Court. 

The court presided over by Chief Justice Gertrude Torkornoo and four other judges, struck out the injunction application after the applicants and their lawyers failed to turn up in court. 

The EC represented by Mr Justine Amenuvor, legally represented the EC while Dr Bossman Asare, the Commission’s deputy Chairperson was however present in court. 

Counsel For EC held that the applicants were not in court because they were satisfied with the Commission’s Limited Registration. 

The Chief Justice explained that the Supreme Court did not sit during legal vacation (August to September) adding it would only sit when a caveat was issued. 

According to Chief Justice, some selected High Court had been assigned to sit during the vacation. 

Five political parties­ filed an injunction at the Supreme Court over the Electoral Commission (EC)’s decision to restrict the upcoming limited voter registration to its district offices. 

The parties are the National Democratic Congress (NDC), the Convention People’s Party (CPP), All People’s Congress (APC), Lib­eral Party of Ghana (LPG) and the Great Consolidated Popular Party (GCPP). 

They were praying the Supreme Court for an Interlocutory In­junction, preventing the EC from proceeding with the exercise until the final determination of the substantive matter. 

According to them, if the num­ber of registration centres were not increased beyond the 268 EC dis­tricts offices, many eligible voters would not be able to register and they would be disenfranchised. 

The suit came five days to the start of the exercise scheduled for September 12 to October 2, 2023, to register who have now attained the eligible voter age of 18 years or those who are qualified but could not register during the previous exercise. 

Since the EC announced the reg­istration on August 17, various po­litical parties including those who are joined in the suit, have called for more centres to be created. 

At a press conference on August 22, 2023, some seven political parties without representation in parliament, cited inconvenience to eligible voters due to the distance between their towns and EC district offices. 

Including Great Consolidated Popular Party (GCPP), Liberal Par­ty of Ghana (LPG) and Conven­tion People’s Party (CPP), these parties suggested that 1,500 centres as used in the 2019 registration exercise or more should be created. 

In a Facebook post, the Nation­al Communications Officer of the NDC, Sammy Gyamfi wrote: “This is only the first of a series of actions that the parties intend to take to compel the EC to con­duct the impending limited voter registration exercise at the electoral area level to give all eligible voters access to the process in line with the letter and spirit of Article 42 of the 1992 Constitution, Regulation 2(1)(2) of C.I 91 and the EC’s own time-tested practices.” 

Meanwhile, the EC has said it was not anticipating any challenges in its decision to undertake the up­coming Limited Voter Registration exercise at its district offices across the country. 

The Commission said it appre­ciated the concerns about accessi­bility of its offices in some remote communities, but it cannot vary its plans due to time constraints. 

In an interview with the Ghana News Agency, Dr Bossman Eric Asare, the Deputy Chair-in-charge of Corporate Services at the EC, said persons who might not be able to register would be offered anoth­er opportunity to do so after the District Assembly Elections. 

“Currently because of the time, we cannot revise what we have. We recognise the challenges. We know there are some places in Nkwanta South, Afram Plains and in all the regions of our country, some of the places are so far away from the districts,” he said. 

Dr Mohamudu Bawumia, a presidential aspirant of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), has asked delegates to discard the notion that the party was tribalistic, and vote massively for him to ‘Break the 8’ in 2024.

He said he was the only person the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) feared to see on the presidential ballot and appealed to delegates to unite behind ‘Team Bawumia’ by voting massively for him at the party’s congress in November.

“I am the third person from the North to contest the presidential primary of the party and the support is across the sixteen regions with everyone supporting Dr Bawumia, because I have what it takes to win the 2024 elections,” he said.  

“We in the NPP are trying to do something that has never happened. We are breaking the Eight. When the party opened the nomination, I picked the form so I could break the eight for the New Patriotic Party,” he said.

Dr Mahamadu Bawumia who was addressing party delegates in Tumu ahead of the November 4 elections, said having won all 16 regions in the Super Delegates Congress, there was reason why he should be voted for, to lead the party.

“If you look at our party and the antecedents and how we have been maligned, our opponents tell people that we vote on tribal lines.

On November 4, 2023, we shall send a signal to show them we are not a tribalistic party by sending a message that we are a national party,” Dr Bawumia said.

“History tells us that the party doesn’t engage in tribal politics when we are electing leaders, as we are made up of different political groupings from different parts of the country.

The National Liberation Movement from Ashanti, the Northern Peoples Party from the North, the Anlo Youth Congress, the Ga People, and the Muslim Association Party came together to form the United Party, which is now the NPP and that’s our antecedents,” he explained.

The Vice President stressed that in the 1954 elections, the Northern Peoples Party won 12 seats with Busia’s party winning just one seat.

This, he said, made the Northern People’s Party the largest opposition party yet it ceded the leadership to Professor Kofi Abrefa Busia, making him the opposition leader and “it tells you one thing that the Northern People’s Party was not choosing leadership on tribal lines”.

He said in recent history, the first Northern candidate who contested in NPP was Alhaji Malik Alhassan Yakubu, who contested former President John A. Kufuor but the people of the North voted for J.A. Kufuor as the party wanted the one who could win elections.

“That showed that the North did not vote for Alhaji Malik Alhassan Yakubu and that showed the North was not tribalistic,” he stressed.

In the era of Vice President Alhaji Aliu Mahama of blessed memory, he stood against the current President Akuffo Addo, which also showed how the North voted for Nana Akuffo Addo, further proving why the party does not consistently vote on a tribal basis,” Dr Bawumia said.

He said the story of the Ashanti was the same as the North, as they do not vote on tribal lines, explaining further that when Adu Boahen contested, the Ashanti region voted for him from the Eastern region and not for Kufuor who hails from the Ashanti.

Vice President Bawumia indicated that among those contesting now, he was the most experienced since he had gone for presidential elections four times and had been well marketed.

“I know the crowd and the ground, the party has marketed me across the country, and I know how to beat my opponent,” he told the delegates.

Dr Bawumia pledged to give each constituency ten appointments and each region twenty appointments towards resolving the problem of the disunity between government and party.  

He said he would make the appointed persons especially those in state institutions to become Godfathers and God Mothers of the constituency whilst establishing a database of the needs of the party members.

The Obuasi East District Assembly has presented assorted items and cash to 17 selected Persons with Disabilities (PWDs) to empower them to be economically independent. 

      The items, which were procured from the three per cent allocated for PWDs from the District Assemblies Common Fund (DACF) were handed over to the beneficiaries who had made specific requests to establish their own businesses at a brief ceremony.  

      They included deep freezers, fufu pounding machines, cosmetics and toiletries, water pumping machine, welding machines, bags of charcoal and maize, among others. 

      Madam Faustina Amissah, the District Chief Executive (DCE) who presented the items on behalf of the Assembly, said the allocation of the fund to PWDs was to cushion them against economic hardship as part of an inclusive governance. 

    She, therefore, admonished the beneficiaries to make effective use of the items to improve their living conditions, adding that a monitoring team would be deployed to check on the beneficiaries and how they were doing. 

     The DCE said the Assembly still had a backlog of applications which would be taking care of as and when funds were available. 

      Dr. Patrick Boakye Yiadom, the Member of Parliament (MP) said the rights of PWDs under the Constitution were protected just as any other Ghanaian and charged them to exercise their civic responsibilities in the democratic process. 

       He said the Constitution gave them the power to exercise their franchise by voting in national elections and present themselves for public office as citizens. 

        “I implore you to step forward and stand for elections especially the upcoming District Level Elections.  

     You have the power to contribute to decision making process so kindly exercise it,” he encouraged them. 

      Dr. Yiadom said the constituency had made considerable progress in terms of compliance with the constitutional provision for public facilities to be disability friendly. 

      Mr. Kwame Ankrah, President of the Obuasi Chapter of the Ghana Federation of the Disability Organisation, lauded the Assembly for its prompt disbursement of the fund.