Political Wranglings

The presidential election is coming up in Ghana, and the two major parties, the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and New Patriotic Party (NPP) are in full campaign mode.  Click here for an article that I wrote about the context surrounding this electoral contest. 

John Jerry Rawlings, ex-president and founder of the incumbent NDC party, is appearing at the NDC congress in Kumasi, essentially a nominating convention, which is going on right now.  Until very recently, it was not clear that Rawlings would attend the congress to offer his endorsement to NDC candidate and acting president John Mahama.  Rawlings had been critical of the administration of President John Evans Atta-Mills, who died about a month ago and was succeeded by Mahama, his VP.  Earlier in the election season, Rawlings's wife even challenged Mills in an NDC primary, though Mills drew 96% of the vote in that contest.  A coworker of mine is convinced that Rawlings is not appearing of his own volition but as the result of political pressure and underhanded tactics.  He explained it to me like this:

First, NDC General Secretary Johnson Asiedu-Nketiah publicly announced Rawlings's interest in attending the event to endorse Mahama.  The claim went unaddressed by Rawlings.  Yesterday, pollster Ben Ephson said in a radio interview that Mr. Rawlings wants to attend the convention but his wife is preventing him from doing so.  With these stories circulating in the major news outlets, skipping the conference would have been disastrous for the Rawlings family's public image.  For John Jerry's part, he would appear to be too easily bent by his wife's will and would lose credibility in the eyes of the Ghanaian people.  His wife would look bitter and vindictive and her reputation would suffer greatly. 

As you might expect, neither Rawlings nor any other NDC member has addressed these circumstances publicly.   However, given that Rawlings only announced his intentions to attend the congress after Ephson's interview, it seems clear that he is attending the congress because he got played.