The General Secretaries of the nation’s two largest political parties, the ruling New Patriotic Party and the opposition National Democratic Congress on Thursday evening gave a foretaste of how fiercely the 2008 elections would be contested.

A statement attributed to the Ashanti Regional Chairman of the NDC, Mr. Daniel Ohene Agyekum, to the effect that Ghana would burn if the NPP went to the polls both as a player and referee, set the tone for the NDC’s Johnson Asiedu Nketiah and NPP’s Nana Ohene Ntow in a heated debate during Joy FM’s Newsnite programme on Thursday.

Ohene Agyekum is reported to have served notice that the will not accept the results of the up-coming contest if any individual or group declares the results of the elections before the Electoral Commission does so.

The warning had earlier been echoed by leading members of the NDC including the flagbearer Prof. Atta Mills at various fora.

While Daniel Ohene Agyekum explained that his warning was not a call to arms, and neither was it a call for a rejection of the 2008 election results, it was to forewarn the NPP against declaring itself winner ahead of the official Electoral Commission’s declaration, ‘as it did in 2004’.

“I never said that if the NPP wins the election, Ghana will burn. What I have said is that the NDC will not accept a situation which was created by the NPP during the 2004 elections, where the NPP party leadership declared the result. They did it four clear hours before the Electoral Commission. We will not accept that situation again.”

“It is the responsibility, the constitutional duty of the Electoral Commission to do so, and I am saying that if any party declares the result, or two parties or three parties declare the result, on the basis of what they have that they have won, then it is a sure basis or reason for violence.”

Johnson Asiedu Nketiah of the NDC maintained that the declaration of the results is the preserve of the Electoral Commission and no other body.

He said as well as murder remains a crime, it is not the duty of the NDC alone to object to its perpetration but all decent citizens.

The law also assigns the responsibility of conducting and declaring results to the Electoral Commission, so if any other person or any other body takes it upon itself or themselves to declare results, it is clearly against the laws of this country. So it is the duty of every Ghanaian, not only NDC but every Ghanaian to object to that result…”

Reacting to the statement, NPP’s Nana Ohene Ntow said the statement was inflammatory, highly irresponsible and a threat to the nation as a whole.

He denied that the NPP declared itself winner in the 2004 elections and said various bodies, including the media, calls results and it was not out of place for the NPP to monitor its progress to assure itself of where it stands in an election, calling the NDC’s claims as petty since the NPP has not usurped the functions of the Electoral Commission.