Former President John Agyekum Kufuor has cited reasons his party- the New Patriotic Party (NPP) – under the candidacy of Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, did not win the December 2008 Presidential Elections. Mr. Kufuor, eight months after handing over power to rival National Democratic Congress (NDC), has denied being responsible in any way for the defeat of the NPP and rejected assertions that the election result was a tacit rejection of the NPP government which he was leader of for eight years. John Kufuor, speaking to Kwaku Sekyi-Addo on TV3’s Kweku-One-On-One last Sunday, said to the best of his knowledge, intent and ability, he did his best to ensure that Nana Akufo-Addo won the said elections but the results of the polls proved otherwise. He explained that, “democracy is not always rational”, and in many instances, voters support a candidate or a party for reasons based on sentiments rather than logic. “I would tell you that as a person, I do not feel responsible for it at all; I did my best for my party and my candidate but if the people decide to vote otherwise, I cannot be responsible for that”, Kufuor added. The ex-President said if Ghanaians had gone to the December polls to cast their ballot based on issues of rule of law, economy and development, there was no way the NPP should have lost power. Kufuor cited the example of an area where the electorate there had vowed to vote out the NPP, even if the government tarred the roads with gold. He asked if he should be blamed for the loss of the NPP in such an area. The ex-president revealed that prior to the presidential primary of the NPP last year, he personally called some of the 17 or so aspirants and advised them to re-think their decision to lead the party and if possible step aside but they all turned down his advice. “I told some of them that ‘look, the daily reports I get do not favor you so don’t waste your time’…but it seems they were bitten by the bug to go into the arena to try their muscles”, he told Kwaku. The number of aspirants, he said, did not give a serious image of the party, “but politics is serious business”. Kufuor said he applauded the party for limiting the number of future flag-bearer aspirants to a maximum of five, which in his view is not too large a figure. The ex-president, in recent times, has been rather uncharacteristically outspoken on thorny issues within the NPP at the least opportunity. A week ago, he addressed the party’s highest decision making body, during which he denied the perception that he belongs to a faction within the party and explained: “I have heard people talk of a ‘Kufuor Faction’ or this faction or that faction in this party; I wish to state here very clearly, today, that I have no faction. And indeed (I) do not want any faction in the party”. "I am a thorough-bred NPP man. I have supported the party’s ideals and principles all my life and I have no intentions of departing from them," he added. “Through this party, I reached the highest point in the political life of our nation. A point anybody could wish for throughout the world. I have had my time and I am content with that”, the ex-President stated. At the Trade Fair Centre in Accra, Kufuor said: “I am not in contention with anybody for any position within the party or outside it and I wish to play my role as an elder statesman within the party, a position I believe I have earned. “As an elder, if I see something going wrong or I have a vision I believe in, I believe I have a duty to my conscience to share it with my party members and if I do not, then I would be failing the party I have served for so long and so well”, he added. Source: Daily Guide