GHANA ELECTIONS: NDC SPREADS MORE RUMORS

C O N F I D E N T I A L ACCRA 001544

SIPDIS

DEPT FOR AF/W

E.O. 12958: DECL: 12/09/2018
TAGS: GH KDEM PGOV PHUM PINS PREL
SUBJECT: GHANA ELECTIONS: NDC SPREADS MORE RUMORS

Classified By: POL CHIEF GARY PERGL FOR REASONS 1.4 (b) and (d)


1. (C) Embassy was approached by two advisors to National
Democratic Congress (NDC) candidate John Atta-Mills, Edward
Nunoo and Sylvanos Tamakloe, who told Poloffs that Electoral
Commission (EC) Director Kwadwo Afari-Gyan was being
pressured by the ruling National Patriotic Party (NPP) to
announce false results that would be supplied by the NPP. The
EC director told Ambassador that the allegations were "utter
nonsense."


2. (C) Nunoo, a lawyer who does work for the NDC, and
Tamakloe, a security and intelligence advisor to Atta-Mills,
said that the reason the results were being announced so
slowly was because the EC director's life was being
threatened, and that he was looking for safe haven from one
of the diplomatic missions. They said that their information
was coming from two of the NDC's polling officials
representing the party in the EC's "strongroom" where
election results are being tabulated. They identified them
as Victor Smith, a former Rawlings aide, and Larry Adjetey,
another NDC high official. They also said that the NPP was
providing false provisional election results to radio and TV
stations to give the impression that Akufo-Addo had more
votes than the actual case.


3. (C) Ambassador managed to put a quick end to these
allegations by placing a call to Afari-Gyan, who called the
charges "utter nonsense" and said that he felt no threat to
his life. He added that he still moves around Accra freely
without escorts or bodyguards. He thanked the Ambassador for
passing along the information. Polchief later spoke with
NDC's Director of Communications, who distanced herself from
the allegations, saying that she knew both Nunoo and
Tamakloe, but they were not speaking on behalf of Atta-Mills.
These would not be the people he would send to you, she
said. She confirmed that Victor Smith was a party
representative in the EC's strongroom, but inferred that he
sometimes spoke without conferring with the candidate and his
closest advisors.


4. (C) COMMENT: This is one more instance of the NDC
playing dirty politics. It has already issued a premature
press release claiming victory, which resulted in
celebrations in Tamale which police were required to
disperse. It held jubilation ceremonies at party
headquarters in Accra that had to be contained by police, and
later claimed that the celebrations were being held only for
some of their parliamentary winners. And it has been
accusing the NPP of malfeasance in at least three
parliamentary elections without providing concrete evidence.
Its behavior is not helping its cause, and seems ill
considered in the face of the good showing it has been making
in the elections. We suspect these two men were
free-lancing. So far, these efforts have not grown beyond
the level of irritation, but we will monitor the situation
carefully.
















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