The life-patron of the Democratic Freedom Party, which only yesterday announced a merger with the governing National Democratic Congress (NDC), says contrary to popular belief, former president Jerry Rawlings, is not the founder of the NDC. Dr Yao Obed Asamoah believes Mr Rawlings and his partisans have appropriated a provision in the NDC constitution that says the party was founded on the ideals of the former president, to call him founder. Explaining the 'homecoming' of the DFP to the NDC on Joy FM’s Super Morning Show Monday, Dr Asamoah said the NDC has no founder but founders – representatives of all the districts in Ghana at the time the party was founded. “I have the list (of founders) – because I was instrumental in the formation of the party and the registration of the party with the Electoral Commission – and …it would interest you to note that that list doesn’t contain President Rawlings,” he said. According to Dr Asamoah, a former Chairman of the NDC and a nemesis of Mr Rawlings, at the time the NDC was founded, Mr Rawlings was still in the military and the political parties law barred him from playing any role in the formation of a political party. He said it was in 1998 that the NDC constitution was amended to say “that the party was founded on President Rawlings’ ideals and that is what he and his supporters interpret to mean that he is the founder [of the NDC]. Well, I cannot be responsible for that kind of interpretation, can I”? Touching on the merger between the DFP and the NDC, Dr Asamoah said the lack of internal democracy and the use of violence and intimidation against members with opposing views in the NDC were things that precipitated the breaking away of the DFP. He said now that those tendencies no longer appear to exist, remaining outside the NDC would suggest there were reasons other than those stated for which the DFP was formed. It is his expectation that former President Rawlings will not continue to be hostile to him. He rejected suggestions the merger was buoyed by promises of appointments to leading members of the DFP, insisting that he has never lobbied for an appointment.