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The National Democratic Congress (NDC), says its silence since the declaration of the 2012 General Election results was for peace to prevail in the country but it appears the New Patriotic Party (NPP) has misconstrued it to mean a confirmation of allegations that the ruling party connived with the Electoral Commission to rig the polls. The party has therefore directed its Regional and Constituency Executives to proceed with their victory rallies and ignore claims of victory by the NPP. General Secretary of the NDC, Johnson Asiedu Nketia, who gave the directive at press conference in Accra on Thursday, also called on the leadership of the NPP to accept defeat or proceed to court to prove all the claims of rigging, adding the NDC has had enough of the attacks on its members. Below is the full press statement STATEMENT READ BY MR. JOHNSON ASIEDU NKETIAH, THE GENERAL SECRETARY OF NDC IN RESPONSE TO NPP�s ALLEGATIONS OF FRAUD IN THE 2012 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS The leadership of the NDC has listened to the various utterances and watched the conduct of the leadership and members of the NPP since the conduct of the elections on December 7 to date with keen interest and utmost tolerance that is required of a party in government which has committed itself to the maintenance of peace before, during and after the elections. We have been operating with the belief that the shock that follows an electoral defeat such as the one suffered by NPP could lead to some �momentary hysteria� that will require some days to heal. However, we have observed that as the days went by, the leadership of the NPP instead of awakening to the realities on the ground have chosen to remain in the state of denial and delusion over a period of almost two weeks and, as the days go by they keep on changing the target of their accusations. It will be recalled that the NPP General Secretary, Mr. Kwadwo Owusu Afriyie, a.k.a. Sir John, when he chose to declare the results in favour of Nana Addo on the night of 8th December, 2012, repeated NPP�s much trumpeted confidence in the competence and integrity of the Electoral Commission (EC) over the years and urged Ghanaians to accept the result from the EC which he claimed tallied with that of the NPP. On the 9th of December when the outlines of their defeat began emerging from the certified results being declared by the EC, the party quickly changed its position about the EC and began accusing the EC of fraud and making demands on the Commission that were not founded on the electoral laws of the country (audit of all polling station result and delay of 48 hours to enable NPP to look for evidence to challenge the result). We in NDC all along felt that if a political party had an issue to clear with the EC, it was none of our business hence we did not make any comment in the meeting held between the EC and the NPP under the auspices of the National Peace Council (NPC). Even when the NPP, represented by Sir John, on the 10th December immediately after the declaration of the results changed the target of their accusations and began alleging that the EC had connived with the NDC and the media to add one million votes to the tally of His Excellency John Mahama we still treated that statement with the contempt it deserved. We are compelled now to respond because the NPP seem to have misinterpreted our silence to mean complicity and have began visiting acts of violence on innocent supporters of our party whose only offence is to appear at public places in the parties colours. Let the NPP be told that enough is enough, if they have any evidence of any wrong doing in the conduct of the elections, they should proceed to seek redress in accordance with the electoral laws of Ghana. Their conduct and utterance before, during and after the elections have portrayed the true nature of the NPP as a party of violence and democratic pretenders whose means of survival is deception of the masses. We in NDC are not surprised at all at this turn of events because for two clear years when NPP had all the opportunity on earth to sell their message and convince Ghanaians to vote for Nana Akufo Addo, they chose to concentrate rather on preparing the minds of their followers to engage in violent reaction should they lose the election. The first major policy statement of their Flagbearer Nana Akufo Addo was �all die be die� which was intended to rally the youth of this country to engage in acts of violence and lawlessness as a means of winning political power in this country. This policy was further expatiated by several leading members of NPP throughout the 2012 campaign. According to NPP Deputy Communication Director, Sammy Awuku, the NPP have blocked their ears to any result that does not declare Nana Akufo Addo as the winner, and that they could not endure another four years in opposition. He added further, that �any results other than NPP victory will be rejected as fraudulent�. Ladies and gentlemen, the pronouncements of some members of the NPP leadership as I recall below, confirm their notoriety for political indecency, violence and confusion: Either NPP is declared winner or Ghana will be turned into Afghanistan - Anthony Karbo, NPP National Youth Organizer. Ghanaian youth should rise up and engage in Tunisian style uprising � Sammy Awuku, Deputy Communications Director at a forum with TESCON members in Koforidua. Those who could not afford licensed guns could resort to pestles, cutlasses and stones which do not need registrations before use � Sammy Awuku, Deputy Communications Director. Immediately after the NPP wins the elections, TESCON members should walk into any government office, drive out the staff and take any position of their choice before they call the NPP national youth organizer to regularize their positions- Sammy Awuku�s address to TESCON members at Koforidua. NPP members should mobilize resources to buy guns and license them for use during the 2012 elections - Peter Mac-Manu, immediate past Chairman of NPP. At a rally at Mantse Agbona in Accra, and in the presence of the top hierarchy of the NPP including former President Kufour, Kennedy Agyapong called for the lynching of police men by NPP youth amidst thunderous applause. They also declared their intension to attack the integrity of state institutions � Ghana Police, EC, the media, the judiciary etc., as a means of pushing their agenda of making Ghana ungovernable should they lose the 2012 elections. It is therefore not surprising to anybody that when Ghanaians including decent NPP members demanded proof of the accusation of electoral fraud leveled against the EC, the NDC and the media and urged the leadership of NPP to go to court with the evidence, the leadership of NPP began accusing the police for raiding their offices and destroying the evidence. What is even more amusing is their latest claim that the NDC has started bribing some Supreme Court Judges to secure a favourable judgment in a case yet to be brought before them. Is the NPP now telling Ghanaians that judges in this country are capable of being compromised by a party in government?, that the Police work in favour of a party in government?, that the media in Ghana work for a party in government? and that the EC supports a party in government? are these statements meant to be confessions of what was happening when the NPP were in power for eight years? We leave this to the judgment of Ghanaians. Ladies and gentlemen, let us turn our attention now to the 2012 elections. We in NDC, whiles acknowledging the fact that there is no perfect elections anywhere in the world, wish to state, without any fear of contradiction, our position that the 2012 elections has been the most transparent, free, fair and peaceful elections ever conducted in the history of this country called Ghana. The following will attest to this fact: The Biometric technology enabled the EC to have the cleanest register ever used in any elections in this country. The Verification equipment eliminated completely the incidence of multiple voting which used to characterize previous elections in Ghana. For the first time the two major political parties applied their own seals to all ballot boxes in addition to the EC�s seals. This provided further protection against the snatching of ballot boxes. The verification equipment provided a counter check for the manual tallying of voters and the issuing of ballot papers at the polling stations. Security personnel deployed in the elections were all trained and given copies of a code of conduct to guide them in the discharge of their duties. All these are additional to the already existing transparency measures that had been in existence in all previous elections such as the maintenance of party agents by all candidates at all polling stations: the open counting and declaration of results immediately after voting closes at all polling stations in the presence of the media, civil society organizations, accredited internal and external observers, the security agencies and indeed members of the general public; the issuance of copies of the result sheets to representatives of all participating candidates and the ability of all these stakeholders to transmit the polling station results directly and independently to their own collation centres. Ladies and gentlemen you will agree with me that Ghana has come a long way in the democratic experience which is an envy of countries the world over, including those in Europe and America where democracy has been practiced well over two hundred years. Instead of joining Ghanaians to bask in this glory, we have a section of our compatriots who have never learnt the art of losing graciously in any elections, trying to taint the image of the EC and other stakeholders in the electoral process and indeed Ghana, by engaging in fabrications, frivolous arguments, and unsubstantiated allegations, open falsehood and empty threats to achieve their obnoxious agenda. Ladies and gentlemen, indulge me to make reference to the attached sheet to demonstrate the mischievous activities of the NPP. (see appendix 1). It is worth noting from this appendix that our Candidate, President Mahama, won in eight out of ten regions, and in three of these eight, he won in all the constituencies i.e. Upper East, Upper West and Volta Regions. And even in the two that were won by Nana Addo i.e. Ashanti and Eastern Regions which NPP claim to be their home regions, President Mahama put up the strongest showing ever by any NDC candidate in any elections in Fourth Republic by obtaining 29% and 43% respectively. In the Parliamentary elections, results declared indicate that the NDC obtained majority of the seats, winning 148 as against NPP�s 123. These parliamentary results are not being challenged by any candidate from the NPP or any other party. Ladies and gentlemen, judging from the facts provided, how can any reasonable Ghanaian doubt the victory of President Mahama and the NDC in the Presidential and Parliamentary Elections? Ladies and gentlemen, it is said that evil thrives when descent people refuse to speak. The NDC has taken note of a few courageous and reasonable voices coming from the ranks of the NPP, urging their leadership to concede defeat and save the image of their party and the country. We wish, to sincerely urge members of the NPP who are interested in the future of their party and democracy in Ghana to stand up and be counted and save the NPP from further embarrassment and possible total destruction as a political force in Ghana. We want to assure the current leadership of NPP that these negative and anti � democratic activities can neither change the verdict of the masses nor prevent NDC supporters from celebrating their hard won victory. We, the National Executive Committee of the NDC wish to assure our members, sympathizers and the entire nation that the NDC has genuinely won the 2012 elections, and we are in a victory mood and nothing will prevent us from celebrating this hard won victory. We hereby direct all our regional and constituency executive committees to continue to organize their victory celebrations across the country and prepare for the gargantuan swearing �in ceremony of our President elect on the 7th of January, 2013. We wish to thank our supporters, sympathizers and well wishers for accepting the Better Ghana Agenda and renewing the mandate of our party. The NDC wishes all Ghanaians MERRY CHRISTMAS and PROSPEROUS NEW YEAR in advance. Long Live NDC Long Live JM Long Live Ghana! SIGNED: 20th December, 2012. Johnson Asiedu Nketiah