Out of the over 11 million voters that turned out for the elections in December, the CPP barely polled 20,000 votes nationwide.
Earlier
this week, the party's flagbearer, Dr. Abu Sakara Forster, laid the
blame squarely on the doorsteps of the leadership of the party,
particularly the party's chairperson, Ms. Samia Nkrumah.
Dr.
Sakara accused the party's leadership of not supporting him enough to
ensure that he polled a decent tally at the December polls.
Hardly
had the flagbearer finished passing the buck than a group within the
party calling itself “Female Executives of CPP” pounced on Dr. Sakara,
saying he should blame himself for his failure.
"We, the CPP
women, are demanding, a public apology from Dr Abu Sakara, the CPP 2012
flagbearer; for his abysmal performance, which is the worst in the
history of the CPP," the women executives stated in a statement released
on Thursday and signed by the spokesperson of the group, Lucy Anin,
Member of Council of Elders of CPP.
"We point to the fact that Dr
Abu Sakara, who failed to campaign effectively, polled only 20,000
votes nationwide out of the 11 million votes cast."
Critics said Dr. Sakara did not campaign enough to attract an acceptable number of votes.
"Two
weeks to elections even the media was looking for the CPP 2012
presidential candidate. While others were campaigning in dozens of
constituencies a day, Dr Abu Sakara was nowhere to be found," the women
group of CPP charged.
But speaking to Daily Guide in an exclusive
interview on Thursday afternoon, party General Secretary Ivor
Greenstreet said everybody (in CPP) was to blame for the woeful
performance of the party.
"I will lay blame on all quarters. I
don't think anybody is exonerated...everybody finds parts of the dirt on
him or her," Mr. Greenstreet told Daily Guide.
"I don't think
the party leadership can be blamed; I don't think Samia can be blamed; I
don't think Sakara should be blamed. I think everybody should be
blamed."
According to the General Secretary, historically, the
fortunes of the party had been dwindling. Indeed from 2000 when the CPP
actually started contesting the elections on its own footing, its total
performance had dropped from approximately 115,000 to 86,000 in 2004.
The
party's flagbearer in the 2008 elections Dr. Paa Kwesi Nduom was almost
on the verge of turning around the fortunes of the party before he left
unceremoniously'. In 2008, Dr. Nduom improved the CPP's tally from
86,000 votes to about 113, 000 votes.
Irregularities
However,
Dr. Sakara's performance was the lowest in the history of the party.
According to Ivor Greenstreet, the problem could partly he blamed on the
massive electoral irregularities that had rocked the reputation of this
year's elections.
The CPP scribe revealed that his party had
also uncovered serious evidence of irregularities that affected the
total tally of the CPP.
He told this paper that the party
appeared to have been laid-back in trumpeting the irregularities
because, the evidence they found might not change the outcome of the
elections that much.
Allegation of Inducements
Critics had
alleged that the current crop of CPP leadership had formed a secret
alliance with the ruling NDC to decimate the fortunes of the party to
favour the NDC. Indeed the party Chairman herself, Samia Nkrumah had
been blamed for being a "mole" of the NDC.
Now, the Female
Executives of CPP were also blaming Dr. Sakara for ostensibly taking
money from the ruling party. "In his attack against the CPP leadership
on Cid FM, Dr Abu Sakara indicated that the new leadership must be
culturally attuned to the Ghanaian political space. We wonder if he is
referring to the culture of collecting monies from another party to sink
the fortunes of the CPP,” the women group taunted him.
But Mr.
Greenstreet indicated that these allegations were unfounded. According
to him, the CPP at several points in Ghana's political history had been
blamed for pandering to the whims of bigger parties.
"When you
are a small party, whatever you say or do can be interpreted to mean
supporting the ruling party or if you are on the other side, the
opposition party," the CPP General Secretary told Daily Guide.
"That
is the price for being a party with so few seats in parliament...If is a
party that has been painted for quite a number of years since 1992."
The
CPP scribe conceded that the beleaguered party needed both an
administrative and technical improvement, but he doubted the efficacy of
such reforms because according to him the woes of the CPP might remain
unless the political structure of the country changed.
According
to him, the sheer size of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC)
and the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) would make nonsense of any
reforms in the CPP.
source: Daily Guide
Friday 11 January 2013
Confusion hits CPP
