NDC, NPP must form unity govt — Dr Jonah
A senior lecturer at the Department of Political Science of the University of Ghana, Dr Kwesi Jonah, has suggested the need for the two dominant political parties - the National Democratic Congress and the New Patriotic Party - to form a national unity government for at least three terms to move the country forward.
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He said it should be possible also for the two main parties to appoint or elect their District Chief Executives (DCEs) and Metropolitan Chief Executives in their strongholds to engender competition and consolidate democracy at the local government level.
Dr Jonah who was speaking at the national stakeholders conference on democratic consolidation organised by IBIS, a Danish civil society organisation which focuses on education and governance, said this move would help the nation take the right kind of decisions socially, politically and economically.
Dr Jonah said the continued practise of the present system of ‘’winner takes all and the loser loses every thing’’ is having negative consequences on the economy, especially during an election period when the government overspent to destroy the economy for the sake of winning power.
Dr Jonah said the people in the long run paid the price because of the negative impact on the economy.
He said the trend of election results since 1992 indicated that the electorate believed that there was no difference between the two main political parties in terms of ideology, identity and principles.
He said in the 1992 presidential election, the margin between President Rawlings and presidential candidate Kufuor was 28.11 per cent
Dr Jonah said in the 1996 elections, the margin narrowed to 17.8 per cent and in 2008 the margin between President Mills and Akufo-Addo was 0.6 per cent which was less than one per cent.
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He said in the last election in 2012 the margin between President Mahama and Akufo-Addo was 2.93 per cent.
Dr Jonah said the message the voters wanted to send to the two big political parties was that they did not see any difference between them.
He said the signal therefore was for the two parties to come together to make compromises since politics was nothing but the ability to make principled compromises.
Dr Jonah said the time had come for the two main parties to start talking about how to ‘’cut the country’s coat according to the material available’’ and stop over-borrowing, especially during elections, which put all the micro indicators of the economy in total disarray.