moderation

(DFP helps reduce political temperature)
THE Democratic Freedom Party (DFP) has helped to reduce and continues to lower the political temperature of the country since its entry into the country’s political scene last year, the National Chairman of the party, Alhaji Abdul Rahman Issaka, has said.
He said the DFP was able to achieve this by the moderating role it had played in national politics since its entry into the country’s political arena, saying before that time the country’s two dominant political parties were always at each other’s throat, a situation which kept the political temperature high.
Alhaji Issaka was answering questions at a press conference the party held as part of the first anniversary of the formation of the party. A reporter had wanted to know from the national chairman the achievements the party had chalked up since it burst onto the political scene a year ago.
He said the DFP had achieved a lot, especially by way of establishing structures at the national, regional and constituency levels.
Alhaji Issaka also said other political parties had now been encouraged to enter the political arena because they now saw a level playing field.
The DFP, he said, also came out with its views on national issues, including the proposed sale of the Agricultural Development Bank (ADB), which had made Ghanaians to see the difference in the opinions expressed by all the political parties.
With regard to how the DFP could become a third force in national politics, Alhaji Issaka said the core votes of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and the National Democratic Party (NDC) in the 2000 and 2004 elections were between 35 and 40 per cent.
“These core votes have reduced to between 25 and 30 per cent, which means there are about 60 per cent of the core votes out there for grabs. No single political party can win the 2008 elections outright but it is our objective to achieve that,” he said.
On why the DFP seemed to be aligning itself to the NPP and always criticising the NDC, Alhaji Issaka said alliances were very important for Ghanaians and that one needed to know his friends in order to form alliances. He stressed, however, that the DFP had not decided on the formation of any alliance with any party and that “we are gunning to lead”.
He added that if the need arose for the DFP to enter into any alliance with any party, its congress would decide.
He also stressed that the NDC was not in power for the DFP to forge an alliance with it.
“It is the NPP which is in power and we are saying that we are going to take power from the NPP,” he stressed.
He stressed further that the DFP took the NPP on on all issues.
A patron of the DFP, Dr Obed Yao Asamoah, said on the two occasions that he had said something which the media perceived to be critical of the NDC, he had talked on various issues and criticised the NPP as well, but the media, for reasons best known to themselves, decided to highlight his criticism of the NDC more than others.
Dr Asamoah said he spoke on issues such as the over liberalisation of trade, which had aggravated the level of poverty in the country, and the need for a green revolution which the government was not prosecuting enough.
In answer to a question concerning the whereabouts of the DFP newspaper, “Freedom News”, the Deputy General Secretary of the party, Mr Bede Ziedeng, said the DFP did not own any newspaper.
Touching on the party’s achievements, Mr Ziedeng said it expressed its opinions on national issues and the quality of contributions it made at Inter-Party Advisory Committee (IPAC) meetings and workshops and seminars on good governance helped to enrich the decisions arrived at.
“Our achievements may not be structures or property but ideas. Politics discusses issues and what we discuss may sound unpleasant to some people or might affect some people but basically we discuss principles intended for Ghanaians to know that there is a party with a difference.
“Ours is not politics to beat up colleagues or fight one another — we discuss issues for people to have a change of heart,” he said.