VZCZCXRO8111
PP RUEHMA RUEHPA
DE RUEHAR #1624 3661714
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 311714Z DEC 08
FM AMEMBASSY ACCRA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 7447
INFO RUEHZK/ECOWAS COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
RHMFISS/CDR USAFRICOM STUTTGART GE PRIORITY

UNCLAS ACCRA 001624 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR AF/W 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: GH KDEM PGOV PHUM PINS PREL
SUBJECT: GHANA ELECTIONS: AKUFO-ADDO NOT READY TO CONCEDE 
 
¶1. (U)  On December 31, one day after the Electoral 
Commission (EC) announced the results of the presidential 
runoff election, New Patriotic Party (NPP) candidate Nana 
Akufo-Addo called a press conference at his residence in East 
Legon to announce that his party had compiled the evidence to 
back up their claims of intimidation by the National 
Democratic Congress (NDC) in the Volta Region.  He asserted 
that in most of the polling stations in 10 (out of a total 
22) constituencies in the NDC stronghold of Volta, NPP party 
agents were not allowed to carry out their roles.  He said 
that the NPP was on its way to the EC right after the press 
conference to present "a whole box of evidence," including 
medical reports and police statements, that would prove the 
party's allegations.  To back up his statement, Akufo-Addo 
produced two battered and bandaged NPP polling agents to step 
in front of the cameras. 
 
¶2. (U) During questioning by the assembled media, Akufo-Addo 
expressed confidence in the EC, and his satisfaction at their 
intervention.  He made it clear that his claims would be 
based on NDC intimidation, and not on any actions of the EC. 
Asked if he was worried about the tension in the country, 
Akufo-Addo said that he was troubled by the violence that was 
being unleashed by the NDC on supporters of the NPP.  He said 
that residents of his Nima property (in an NDC-dominated area 
of Accra) were sleeping at his East Legon property because 
they had been "brutalized."  NDC threats and vandalism 
continued to intimidate members of the NPP; his billboards in 
Accra were being defaced, and NDC-initiated text messages and 
physical assaults continued to create tension. 
 
¶3. (SBU)  Although some questions were pointed (What proof do 
you have? and Are you accusing the EC of complicity?), no 
journalist had the temerity to ask whether or not Akufo-Addo 
had considered conceding the election.  This may have been 
because the candidate was surrounded by a vociferous and 
palpably cranky entourage inside his courtyard, and an even 
larger throng of brazenly angry supporters pounding on his 
gate and being held at bay by a phalanx of armed police 
outside his home.  Radio Joy FM, the station that had 
prematurely projected an Atta-Mills victory, was not present, 
and a reporter for Radio Gold, the NDC-leaning station that 
had spewed inflammatory anti-NPP rhetoric the day before, was 
refused entry to Akufo-Addo's property and then driven away 
by the jeering crowd outside. 
 
¶4. (SBU)  COMMENT.  To his credit, Akufo-Addo's press 
statement was understated.  He asked only that his party be 
given a fair hearing, and that democracy in Ghana be given a 
chance, without being hijacked by the opposition party.  He 
was clearly placing any hope for an NPP victory in convincing 
the EC to reconsider returns from the Volta Region, and not 
in overcoming the NDC lead by a big win in the Tain 
constituency during the final round of voting set to take 
place this Friday.  Both eventualities seem like a long shot: 
the NDC is likely to win in Tain (Atta-Mills, John Mahama, 
and Jerry Rawlings have already decamped from Accra and are 
campaigning there, while Akufo-Addo did not appear to have 
any clear plan to try to win the hearts and minds of Tain), 
and none of the international observer teams reported the 
kind of large-scale intimidation in Volta Region that 
Akufo-Addo claimed to have evidence of.  There is also the 
chance that any claims will be balanced by counter-claims by 
the NDC regarding NPP strongholds such as Kumasi. Perhaps 
most telling of where the NPP is headed was the overall mood 
at his press conference, which was one of shell-shock and 
despair, not of a fighter about to muster the energy to make 
a last-round knockout. 
TEITELBAUM