Ghana: New Patriotic Party Official Denies Violence Charges GHANA BROADCASTING CORPORATION RADIO 1 Tuesday, November 14, 2000 The New Patriotic Party, NPP, says it is confident of winning next month's elections and will not want any disturbances to disrupt the process. Addressing a news conference in Accra, the NPP spokesman on legal affairs, Nana Akuffo-Addo, dismissed as baseless allegations that the party is preparing to destabilize the country. He called on the minister of the interior, Nii Okaidja Adamafio, to produce evidence to back the allegations. Richard Quarshigah has the story. (Begin recording) (Quarshigah) The NPP official repeated at the news conference that the party is committed to peace and respect for the Constitution. The official, however, doubted the NDC (National Democratic Congress)'s sincerity to a peaceful election. Nana Akuffo-Addo said there is clear indication that the NDC would not tolerate losing the elections and finding itself in the opposition, and would rather plunge the country into chaos, which it has the means to do. He said claims that arms are being smuggled into the country by the opposition are tactics by the NDC government to discredits its opponents, and put fear into the people. According to Nana Akuffo-Addo, the NPP has always believed in multiparty democracy and even though it was convinced that the 1992 and 1996 elections were far from fair, it accepted the results in the interest of national peace. According to him, the most provocative thing the party did was to write a book about the 1992 elections entitled: The Stolen Verdict. (Akuffo-Addo) These pronouncements are meant to set the stage for the government to have an excuse to introduce draconian and unconstitutional measures under the pretext of some imaginary threats to security and, already, there are worrying signs that this has already started. Now that all the indications are (word indistinct), we are going to win the elections in three weeks time. What interest could we possibly have in wanting to disturb the peace of the country? We would like to appeal, in the highest interest of our nation, to our compatriots (?and supporters) to resist the temptation to be dragged into any political dispute, and to continue to do their work as professionally as they are capable of doing. (Quarshigah) Nana Akuffo-Addo also urged the vice president, Prof. Mills, to tell Ghanaians in clear terms that he is committed to peaceful, free, and fair elections, and that he would accept without reservation the verdict of the people if the NDC loses the elections.