The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), despite pegging President JEA Mills as a slight favourite in this year’s elections, says the Woyome scandal could hurt the president and the governing NDC’s chances of retaining power. It said regardless of how the matter ends, the president, who came to power on the back of greater transparency and accountability, has been bruised and that sufficient doubts have been created in the minds of the electorate about the government’s commitment to accountability. In its February report, the EIU said, “even if the NDC were to sacrifice one of their own as a scapegoat in the scandal, the president’s defence that he was unaware of the payments being made casts him as a leader who is not paying close attention to the management of his government. In effect, Mr Mills and the NDC lose either way even if Mr Woyome or others are convicted of a crime and the money is repaid to the government. Given that this has happened less that 12 months before legislative and presidential elections that will likely be won by the slimmest of margins, the negative impact on the election prospects of the NDC and Mr Mills should not be underestimated.” Indeed Mr Woyome and three others are standing trial for various roles in the payment of GHS51 million in judgement debt to businessman and NDC financier, Mr Alfred Agbesi Woyome. The EIU report said President “Mills did himself no favours by dismissing the current Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Martin Amidu, shortly after the scandal broke. Mr Amidu played a large part in bringing the potential wrong-doing to light. He had filed a case against Mr Woyome to refund the payments to the government, citing that the claims were fraudulent.” “The president is now in an extremely difficult situation. Two of his cabinet ministers are directly involved in the scandal (Mr Duffuor and Ms Mould-Iddrisu, the latter resigning as a consequence) and pleading ignorance of the issue will do him little good in the eyes of the electorate. Nor is it likely that the scandal will go away anytime soon given the ammunition that it provides the political opposition in what is an election year,” the report added. According to it “The alleged closeness of Mr Woyome to the NDC [and the fact] that he has contributed financially to the party and the implication of NDC ministers in the scandal will hurt the NDC regardless of the outcome of any investigation, as the stage has been set for many Ghanaians to regard the situation with suspicion.” The EIU believes that given both governing NDC and the opposition New Patriotic Party retained their respective flagbearers in 2008 for the 2012 elections which recorded a very slim margin of victory, the 2012 elections will virtually be a repeat of the 2008’s. Apart from the Woyome scandal, intra-party division in the ruling NDC, the EIU noted could work against the president. “The president, John Atta Mills of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), has struggled to maintain party unity in recent months. Although he faced down a leadership challenge at a party congress, that will not end the NDC’s internal troubles,” the report stated It said “The power of incumbency will give some advantage to the NDC especially in terms of spending the early oil windfall,” but quickly added “although this advantage is less pronounced in Ghana than in other African countries, given its history of voters evicting the ruling party in favour of the opposition.” The NDC looks set to suffer from its internal rivalries and corruption allegations, but it should benefit from the favourable economic picture of high growth and relatively low inflation.