?Skirt and blouse? voting is a sign of true democracy

With reference to the article ?J.H. Mensah advises against Skirt and blouse voting? of Monday, 15 November 2004, I strongly disagree with the advice Mr. J.H. Mensah and Mr. Albert Kan-Dapaah gave to NPP party supporters about desisting from ?skirt and blouse? voting. If this implies that people should blindly vote for NPP candidates who the people may judge as being relatively bad or mediocre then where did the NPP?s values and integrity go? You call this the ?democratic principles of the part?? It behooves on the party to present the ?best? candidates to match with the ?best? presidential candidate.

The people live with their parliamentary candidates, they know them better, so they should not vote for any bad candidate that any of the parties will present; even if it comes to a point that no votes are cast because all the candidates are bad. It is this kind of pressure on all political parties that would breed excellent Government and allow true democracy to grow.

I am still a member of the NPP party though I am not in active politics. I campaigned for the party as a youth organizer of the Tarkwa district in the 1992 elections i.e. during the difficult times when the party was determined the preach and deliver true democracy to the great people of Ghana. We wished that even if our presidential candidate did not win, our parliamentary candidates would be voted in order to have a stronger representation (the best and the committed) in parliament. That presupposed that we presented the ?best? candidates and that people should not blindly vote for bad or mediocre NDC candidates even if they voted for their presidential candidate. Our ?cry? should not be different now that we are enjoying power. If we want to enjoy power then lets learn to bear the heat from criticisms and breed people of integrity for our country.

Let us not join what has been the source of moral decadence in democracy. The center of true democracy that the so-called frontiers of democracy (USA, UK ?.) cannot hold is allowing the people to choose the ?best? for their country and not ?buying? their conscience into blind and selfish loyalty. Great people of Ghana, I advise you to let your vote be based on sound judgment of genuine values and history of good performance.

Peter Amponsah Lemaire
University of Connecticut

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