VZCZCXRO8738
PP RUEHMA RUEHPA
DE RUEHAR #1581 3521659
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 171659Z DEC 08
FM AMEMBASSY ACCRA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 7392
INFO RUEHZK/ECOWAS COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
RHMFISS/CDR USAFRICOM STUTTGART GE PRIORITY

UNCLAS ACCRA 001581 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR AF/W 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: GH KDEM PGOV PHUM PINS PREL
SUBJECT: CODEL NELSON CALLS ON MINISTER, MEETS ELECTION 
OFFICIALS 
 
¶1.  (U)  Senator Bill Nelson called on Ghana's Minister of 
Parliamentary Affairs, Abraham Ossei-Aidooh, on December 14 
to congratulate the Minister and the Ghanaian people on their 
recent successful presidential and parliamentary elections 
and to assure the Minister of continued U.S. support for 
Ghana as it claims its rightful role in the community of 
democracies.  Senator Nelson was accompanied by his wife 
Grace Nelson, Ambassador Don Teitelbaum, the Senator's 
legislative assistant Greta Lundeberg, Caroline Tess, his 
designee on the Intelligence Committee, and Captain John 
O'Brien, the Marine Corps military escort. 
 
¶2.  (U)  Minister Ossei-Aidoo and Senator Nelson covered a 
wide range of subjects, including the Africa Growth and 
Opportunity Act (AGOA), the Millenium Challenge Agreement, 
and military and counter-narcotics assistance being provided 
to Ghana by the United States.  Discussions included some of 
the similarities between the U.S. Congress and Ghana's 
Parliament, and the question of how Parliament plans to 
address the issues it will face as it seats its first 
legislative body without a single-party majority. 
 
¶3.  (U)  Ossei-Aidooh thanked the Senator for his words of 
encouragement for Ghana's democratic elections, and asked him 
to help Ghana protect its nascent democracy by providing a 
fair balance in the economic marketplace.  He said that Ghana 
was losing jobs and closing factories because of cheap 
imports that were flooding its markets, and lamented that the 
country was unable to compete with the efficiencies and 
competitive advantages of Western nations.  What good is 
democracy, he asked, if we cannot provide jobs for our people? 
 
¶4.  (U)  Sen. Nelson and the Ambassador told the Minister 
that many of the issues he was raising about Economic 
Partnership Agreements (EPAs) involved the European Union and 
not the United States.  Approximately 98 percent of the goods 
entering the U.S. from Africa do so duty-free, and great 
strides have been made under AGOA and other trade agreements. 
 
¶5.  (U)  On the subject of Ghana's next Parliament, 
Ossei-Aidoo, who did not stand for reelection as an MP, said 
that a Parliament without a majority would indeed be a 
novelty for Ghanaian politics, and that it was hard to tell 
at this point in time how well Parliament would function 
under this new regime.  He said that he preferred full 
separation of the executive and legislative branches, where 
no ministers were appointed from Parliament and MPs 
concentrated on lawmaking. 
 
¶6.  (U)  On Sunday evening the Ambassador hosted a dinner in 
honor of Senator Nelson, attended by his delegation and key 
members of various non-political organizations who had 
contributed to making the December 7 elections a resounding 
success.  Among those attending were the Deputy Chairman of 
the Electoral Commission, members of Ghana's Center for 
Democratic Development and the Coalition of Domestic Election 
Observers, the Carter Center, the European Union Election 
Observation Mission, and the National Commission for Civic 
Education.  Sen. Nelson warmly congratulated all of those 
involved on their successful endeavors, and encouraged them 
to continue their efforts on December 28 when the country 
goes back to the polls for the runoff presidential elections. 
 
¶7.  (U)  This message has been cleared by Codel Nelson. 
TEITELBAUM