THE Dean of the Faculty of Social Studies of the University of Ghana, Prof Joseph R. A. Ayee, has supported the call for a comparison of records of political parties, saying such comparison "gives an indication of the performance of the parties and helps the electorate to make informed choices". He said a comparison of records "gives us a better understanding" of the strengths and weaknesses of previous policies and helps in fine-tuning future policies. "A comparison of records is about stocktaking. As a nation, we should take stock of the past. That will enable us to know our mistakes and address the problems of the future," he told the Daily Graphic. Prof Ayee was contributing to the debate on the significance of the comparison of the records of previous and current governments. The New Patriotic Party (NPP) presidential candidate, Nana Addo Dankwa AkufoAddo, first amplified the need for a comparison of records at the recent launch of the party's campaign in Accra. But the running mate to the flag bearer of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Mr John Dramani Mahama, responded at the launch of the NDC campaign last week Wednesday that while the NDC was ready for such comparison, reducing an election campaign to the mere comparison of records would be a recipe for mediocrity. The National Chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Mr Peter Mac Manu, in his reaction, urged Ghanaians to compare the eight-year performance of the NPP government with that of the NDC administration in their choice, come the December elections. And the CPP's Dr Paa Kwesi Nduom waded in to add that the comparison should not be between the NPP and the NDC only but should also include the record of the CPP under Ghana's first President, Dr Kwame Nkrumah. Prof Ayee stressed that a comparison of records helped political parties to build on their past policies to address the needs of the country. "If you do not compare records, how do you move on? You cannot build on what you have without comparison," he stressed. The political scientist mentioned the strengths and weaknesses of policies, as well as the implementation gap, as some of the ingredients that needed to be looked at when comparing records. He said there was the need to find out whether the time stipulated for the completion of projects and programmes initiated by previous or' current governments was met. He explained that policies do not come in a vacuum and that they were built on past policies. Therefore, he said, when the policies or records were compared, they would establish the contrasts and similarities of the policies and help in "preparing adequately for the future". Source: Daily Graphic