Tamale, Nov. 26, GNA - Former Vice President,
Professor John Evans Atta Mills on Friday said he
was not happy with the Ghana Bar Association's (GBA)
undue silence on the abuses of incumbency by the
ruling NPP government.
He said the GBA came out in 2000 to blame and accuse
the then ruling NDC of abuse of incumbency but had
now become silent over the incessant abuses of the
same status by the NPP.
Prof. Mills, one of the Presidential Candidates of
the NDC who raised this concern in Tamale, during an
interaction with the media said even though
incumbency was not a trump card to winning
elections, its practice should be discouraged
because it does not create equal opportunities.
Prof.
Mills was in the Northern Region to solicit votes
from delegates for the impending national delegates'
congress of the NDC to choose a presidential
candidate to lead the party in the 2008 general
elections.
He mentioned that President Kufuor went to campaign
in the recent Offinso by-elections with a convoy of
70 official vehicles but some analysts defended him
by saying that some of the vehicles were privately
owed.
"I had wished that the GBA used the same yard-stick
it used to measure the NDC when it was in power to
assess the NPP to ensure fairness in this democratic
dispensation", he said.
Prof. Mills gave the assurance that he would be the
last person to create factions in the NDC or betray
its course if delegates failed to give him their
mandate.
He said what was happening in NDC was an example of
internal democracy and wished other contestants in
the presidential race well in their endeavours.
He indicated that at the end of the day, one
candidate would be selected to lead the party and
that the losers should still consider themselves as
victors and rally behind the NDC to win power in
2008.
He said the party would not be coerced to choose a
candidate because one has money, pointing out that
money was not the main determinant for the selection
of a candidate for the party.
Prof. Mills urged other Presidential Aspirants to be
decent in their language and to avoid indecent
behaviour at the congress.
Alhaji Mohammed Mumuni, a leading member of the NDC
said Prof. Mills was a solid electoral asset and
urged the delegates to give him their mandate to
ensure total victory in 2008.
GNA
