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Is this why the NDC/NPP are not releasing their manifestos?

There have been numerous incidents in previous elections where campaign messages or slogans has been ‘stolen’ by a rival party.

 

The rest have been calling on electorates to vote for them without setting out a clear path they intend to send the country when elected. The IEA’s evening encounter with some candidates has been the only chance electorates have had to know the plans of those who seek to govern.

The reason could be because of a fear of ‘copycatting’ among the parties.

The latest in this year’s elections has been plagiarism by supporters of the governing National Democratic Congress (NDC). It involves a campaign video by the main opposition; New Patriotic Party (NPP) which has been edited by supporters of the NDC with messages of the president’s achievements.

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Although this has not been attributed to the party officially, social media has been awash with criticism for this sort of behaviour with some comparing it to Melania Trump’s plagiarised speech of Michelle Obama.

This is not the first time, the NDC (in particular) has been accused stealing ideas from other parties.

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Key examples of copying

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Unfortunately, many of the key examples are not in favour of the government.

1. In 2008, the campaign slogan of the Convention People’s Party (then led by Dr Nduom), was Yeresesamu translates as ‘we are changing.’ The NDC (then in office) also adopted it as its slogan leaving Dr Nduom to accuse the party of ‘stealing’.

2. In 2012, while the NPP proposed free senior high school education for all, President Mahama argued against a blanket implementation. On the contrary, he promised to build 200 community day schools towards making secondary school education 'progressively free'. Mahama in 2014, in an address to Parliament, announced that his government would be making education free for senior high school students. The NPP has accused the government of bad mouthing the policy for votes only to steal it when they assumed office.

3. In 2015, journalist turned politician, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah (NPP) threatened to sue Moses Karma; an NDC parliamentary candidate aspirant, after his campaign team to unusual inspiration from the campaign photo of Nkrumah. It was very apparent that Karma’s campaign team had simply replace Nkrumah’s head with his, changed the party colours and passed it off as theirs.

4. The government’s message has been that it is ‘Changing Lives, Transforming Ghana.’ It increasingly looks like this would be the party’s slogan in this year’s elections; except that it sounds too familiar. The title of the NPP’s manifesto document in the last election was; ‘Transforming Lives, Transforming Ghana.’

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5. The NPP have also been accused of stealing ‘1 district, 1 factory’ idea from a lesser known politician who has previously run for president. In June, Kofi Akpaloo, flagbearer of the Independent People’s Party (IPP) of stealing an idea he had already proposed ahead of his return bid for the presidency.

The two main parties have already given indication that their campaign messages are ready. Although the NDC is launching its campaign on Sunday August 13, it is not releasing its manifesto. The NPP have also not given any indication of when it is outdooring its.

In this cat and mouse game, whoever emerges as the mouse would not be happy.

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