Deputy General Secretary of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Mustapha Gbande, has revealed that the party is “bleeding” from past experiences with by-elections in the country.

According to him, there is the need for relevant authorities to take charge and ensure the Assin North by-election is transparent. He stated that what is “more scary” for the NDC is that the NPP, realizing it has “lost the grounds”, are seeking to compromise the security of the election.

“We are only hoping the IGP will make use of professionalism and take full control of this election because the NDC is coming from a bleeding position of a past experience as far as by-elections are concerned. We are guiding that the past will not repeat itself.”
Mustapha Gbande

Mr Gbande stated that the NDC will not accept any form of intimidation, illegality and acts that are an affront to the election process in tomorrow’s by-election in Assin North. He indicated that the party desires a transparent and credible election.

“… We want to see the NDC and the NPP go out of Assin North very friendly, peaceful [and] where the NDC goes home with a victory.”
Mustapha Gbande

President Akufo-Addo has damaged the judiciary

Commenting on the campaign in the Assin North and its climax on June 25, 2023, Mr Gbande stated that the campaign “has been very peaceful, very clean until we had His Excellency the President come in”. To this, he explained that the NDC is trying to ascertain whether President Akufo-Addo spoke on the Gyakye Quayson criminal case when he appeared in Assin North yesterday as a lawyer, or in connection with issues in the courts.

Mr Gbande further questioned whether the President clearly understands the extent to which his comments have “damaged the judiciary” and how it further confirms the suspicion of the NDC that he is doing everything possible to compromise the independence of the judiciary.

“I think we should be worried as a country beyond the by-elections. If your President can assume such a preposterous position, such a position that [has] the tendency to jeopardize our democracy if you put to it on the quality of judiciary we ought to have as a country and what we have now.”
Mustapha Gbande

Beyond that, the NDC deputy general secretary highlighted that what is more disturbing is that the NPP does not have a message and all that it seeks to engage in is vote-buying. However, he questioned how long Ghana can sustain this new paradigm being introduced by Nana Addo as one of his legacies.

“Can we shed away development? Can we sacrifice growth? Can we sacrifice standard of living and begin to share money for the purposes of political experience? That is how low Nana Addo has brought governance [and] that is how low the NPP has brought our country to.”
Mustapha Gbande

Furthermore, Mr Gbande noted that the party believes that beyond the issues in court, it regards Gyakye Quayson as a very honorable person who is not a criminal. He stated that in the eyes of the law, nothing forbids him from being a member of parliament and that of the people of Assin North.

“If we get a transparent, credible, free and fair election, the NDC should be able to retain honorable Gyakye Quayson in good faith.”
Mustapha Gbande

Meanwhile, former President John Dramani Mahama has told President Akufo-Addo that the facts of the cases involving Adamu Sakande, the late Bawku Member of Parliament who was sentenced to two years imprisonment after he was found guilty of false declaration of office, perjury, and deposed Assin North lawmaker James Gyakye Quayson who is also standing trial for the same charges, are not the same.

In light of this, he urged President Akufo-Addo to stop misleading the people by saying that the two cases are the same.

“Adamu Sakande went to prison because he lied and concealed his passport. Gyakye Quayson has not hidden his passport. Prior to voting for him in 2020 Canada had accepted that he was no longer a Canadian citizen, what crime has he done?”
John Dramani Maham