Asiedu Nketia, General Secretary of NDC
This story was first published by the Daily Statesman Newspaper and modernghana.com on 11th July 2011.
The country’s 1992 constitution stipulates that local government elections which are held every four years are supposed to be non-partisan, meaning aspirants are not permitted to run on tickets of political parties.
But interestingly, Johnson Asiedu Nketia, aka General Mosquito, the General Secretary of the ruling National Democratic Congress, last Saturday at the party’s congress in Sunyani told the world that the NDC won over sixty percent of the seats of the December 2010 district assembly elections.
He was happy to disclose that individuals who were either sympathizers or associated with the NDC won in their electoral areas citing Eastern Region, a stronghold of the opposition NPP, where the NDC made significant electoral gains.
According to Asiedu Nketia, the result of the local elections was an indication that the NDC government was performing and becoming popular and acceptable to majority of the people.
Investigations carried out by this paper reveal that many of the aspirants in the district assembly polls were sponsored by the NDC.
It would be recalled that the last district assembly elections were held in December, three months behind schedule and for the first time in the history of this country, the elections were held on four separate days instead of one day.
Political analysts and commentators criticized the NDC government for not paying attention to the decentralization concept as part of deepening the country’s democracy.
