Osei Kyei Mensah-Bonsu, the former Majority Leader in Ghana’s Parliament, has offered a candid assessment of the challenges faced by the New Patriotic Party (NPP) as the nation prepared for the 2024 presidential election.
In an interview, the former Suame MP conceded that the New Patriotic Party (NPP) was aware of the tough battle it would face in the 2024 presidential election.
“heading into the election, I admitted that it was going to be a challenging endeavor” Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu told Kojo Marfo on AbusuaNkommo at AbusuaFM, acknowledging the weight of history on the Ghana’s electoral process.
“Since the inception of our election process in 1992, no party has successfully broken the eight-year cycle, so we knew from the outset that it would be difficult”.
Beyond domestic political dynamics, Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu pointed to the profound impact of global events, particularly the COVID-19 pandemic, on the world economy.
He emphasized “global events, particularly following the COVID-19 pandemic, had a profound impact on the world economy, creating numerous hardships”.
Referencing a striking statistic, the former Majority Leader noted that since 2022, a staggering 52 out of 66 countries that held elections saw incumbent governments ousted. He further highlighted that among the few exceptions, many were socialist countries with questionable election processes, leaving only a handful of nations where incumbents managed to cling to power, albeit with diminished support.
He explained “Since 2022 to date, 66 countries have held elections. Out of these, 52 incumbent governments lost their elections. The remaining 14 are socialist countries, with eight of them claiming to have held elections. However, only six countries with incumbent governments managed to retain power, albeit with reduced margins. That’s the reality.”
Mensah- Bonsu acknowledged the significant impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine war on Ghana, while also highlighting the country’s successful management of the pandemic.
He said “So, we knew it was going to be difficult. In Ghana, the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine war had a significant impact. Despite this, our efforts in managing the pandemic were applauded by other countries. For instance, Ghana’s record of COVID-19 deaths per capita was remarkably low, not only in Africa but also compared to countries like the UK and USA. In fact, these countries were interested in studying our approach to understand how we achieved such a low mortality rate”
“However, this success came at a cost, as we had to spend significant amounts of money to save lives”, he added.
He noted that the economic hardships that followed were severe, and they(NPP) were aware that this would pose a major challenge for them in the elections.
“Ghana faced considerable economic hardships, which were more severe than in many other countries. Consequently, wherever we went, people complained about the difficulties they were facing”, he opined.
Source: www.kumasimail.com /Kwadwo Owusu
