VZCZCXRO2113
PP RUEHPA
DE RUEHAR #1544 3441839
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
P 091839Z DEC 08
FM AMEMBASSY ACCRA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 7360
INFO RUEHZK/ECOWAS COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
RHMFISS/CDR USAFRICOM STUTTGART GE PRIORITY
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.
TEITELBAUM
