GHANA'S PRESIDENT AND PARLIAMENT SWORN IN

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 ACCRA 000049

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/10/2014
TAGS: GH PGOV GOG
SUBJECT: GHANA'S PRESIDENT AND PARLIAMENT SWORN IN

Classified By: PolChief Scott Ticknor for reasons 1.5 d and e.


1. (C) Summary: President John Kufuor was sworn in for a
second term on January 7. His inauguration was delayed by
several hours because of a tug-of-war over the selection of
the new Speaker of Parliament, Ebenezer Sekyi Hughes. This
showdown could sour relations for some time between the two
major parties in parliament. We do not expect much policy or
legislative momentum in the coming month, as politicians
jockey for positions, the new parliament gets organized and
new ministers and deputies are vetted through parliament.
End summary.

President Sworn In
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2. (U) On January 7, John Agyekum Kufuor was sworn in for a
second four-year term as President of Ghana. The
inauguration was attended by the presidents of Senegal,
Nigeria, TOGO, Sierra Leone, Equitorial Guinea, Benin and
Mali, the Prime Ministers of Angola, Guinea, and Burkina
Faso, Interim Chairman of the Liberation Unity Government of
Liberia Gyude Bryant, the Vice Presidents of South Africa and
the Gambia, the Foreign Minister of Morocco, and other
dignitaries (Ambassador Yates represented for the USG). In
his inaugural speech, Kufuor highlighted the need for good
governance, for increasing confidence in public institutions,
and for boosting education and health care.

Parliament Off to a Bumpy Start
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3. (U) The ceremony started almost three hours late because
parliament, meeting just before the inauguration, could not
reach consensus on the selection of a new Speaker. The
ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) backed President Kufuor's
choice of Ebenezer Begyina Sekyi Hughes, while the opposition
National Democratic Congress (NDC) pushed for the reelection
of outgoing Speaker Peter Ala Adjetey. In an unprecedented
secret ballot (counted three times because of math errors),

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Hughes prevailed 134 votes to 96. Parliament retained
Freddie Blay as First Deputy Speaker by consensus but then
again disagreed over the choice of the largely ceremonial
Second Deputy Speaker position. The NPP again prevailed in a
secret ballot vote, with its winning candidate Malik Yakubu

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Al-Hassan (an NPP MP from Yendi, Northern Region). With
these positions selected, the new Speaker swore in 230 new
Members of Parliament.

Comment
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4. (C) The GOG badly bungled the protocol of the
inauguration and related events during the week, damaging
Ghana's reputation for many visitors. At the inauguration,
Heads of State and Ambassadors were left waiting for hours
without explanation. Some Members of Parliament were left
standing without seats (PolChief witnessed police threatening
to beat VIPs if they did not vacate seats). Kufuor's aides
forgot to bring the sheet of paper with the oath of office,
forcing the President to repeat the words of the Chief
Justice. VIP vehicles arrived and departed chaotically, with
no protocol officers in sight. The suddenly arriving thick
mist of hamattan season added to the atmosphere of confusion.



5. (C) Parliament is off to an inauspicious start. The
selection of Speaker is usually decided before MP's come to
vote. The secret ballot voting for both Speaker and Deputy
Speaker was unprecedented. The results - two NPP choices and
no one in leadership from the NDC - will likely sour
relations between the two major parties in parliament. The
election of Deputy Speaker Malik Yakubu Al-Hassan is
controversial. Formerly Interior Minister, he resigned under
pressure after the 2002 murder of the Ya Na (Dagbon Chief) in
his home town. Speaker Hughes and First Deputy Speaker Blay
are both from the Akan ethnic group. Their election
reinforces the Akan identity of the Kufuor government (Kufuor
and the Chief Justice are also Akans, but the Speaker has
traditionally been a Ga.) This could eventually hurt the
NPP's political support among other ethnic groups. We will
provide a bio of the new Speaker septel.


6. (C) We do not expect much policy or legislative momentum
in Ghana for at least the next month. Enthusiasm for
Kufuor's second term could increase after his new ministers
are in place. At the moment, however, politicians are busy
jockeying for positions in the new government. There are
currently no ministers (ministries are being run by Chief
Directors). All new ministers will need approval from
parliament, which will be absorbed in the coming weeks with
forming committees and training (52 percent of MPs are new to
parliament). The President is in Gabon for an AU Security
Summit and, in the next few weeks, will host an ECOWAS Summit
in Accra and attend an AU Summit in Addis Abbaba. He will
likely begin to name Cabinet nominees within the next week,
but parliamentary approval could take weeks. The President's
priorities in early February will be the budget and his State
of the Nation Address (Note: the President's January 4 State
of the Nation address fulfilled, for the first time ever, a
constitutional requirement that the President address
parliament before the end of its session about his
performance. The February State of the Nation address will
fulfill another constitutional requirement that the President
address parliament at the beginning of a session, and is
likely to be more prospective than the January speech. End
note.) The Parliament will adjourn by March 25 for six weeks.
We will do more analysis over the coming weeks about what to
expect from Kufuor's second term.





YATES