The Founder of the Movement for Change and now leader of the Alliance for Revolutionary Change, Alan Kyerematen, has officially launched what encapsulates his manifesto, called the “Great Transformational Plan.”
At a ceremony on Monday, Mr. Kyerematen, a former stalwart of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) said his ‘plan’ will bring stability, growth, and prosperity to Ghanaians, pitching himself as a ‘transformational” leader, while at the same time taking a swipe at the two major parties (the NPP and NDC) for delaying the announcement of their manifestoes.
“Five months to a general election, we’re still waiting for the manifestoes of our two leading parties,” he said.
“We have an opportunity in the general election, in December this year to move Ghana into a new era of peace and prosperity by electing me [Alan] as the first independent candidate to become the president of the Republic of Ghana.”
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The Great Transformational Plan (GTP), formerly a 15-point sectoral strategy, has now been refined to six interrelated clusters, Mr. Kyerematen said.
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The plan covers areas in economics, governance, infrastructure, social services, environment and natural resource management, and behavioral and mindset change.
“Each cluster has a number of pillars, thematic areas, and policy solutions. The plan is significantly different from the party manifestoes that have been presented by the two political parties that have been in power for decades,” Kyerematen said.
His GTP proposal includes cutting government spending and appointments, abolishing some taxes and enhancing the collection of others, eliminating sole sourcing in public procurements and contracting, reducing government financing of infrastructure projects, and consolidating government portfolios and agencies with overlapping duties.
“On lower taxes and duties, first, eliminate the existing compounding calculation of VAT and consolidate the NHIA and GetFund levies with the VAT rates. Abolish the special import levy of 2%, abolish the covid-19 health recovery levy, abolish the Ghana Heath Service disinfection fee, and abolish all taxes on spare parts within the first two years after the establishment of the government of National Unity.”
He also spoke on government debt and corruption in the construction industry, saying that there needs to be a limit to government borrowing and more private-sector involvement.
“We have to maintain strict capping on government borrowing to ensure that our debt to GDP does not go beyond 55%. There’s a lot of money floating around in the world. Government does not need to continue building roads. Every politician would like to build roads because that’s where the corruption and contracting starts.If you go to some of the powerful economies in the world, most of the roads were built by private sector capital,” he added.
But some doubt that Alan and his alliance have a shot at winning the elections. Alan has partnered with a former CPP flagbearer, Dr. Abu Sakara Foster, (who appears to be his running mate, although it’s not been officially communicated), and seven other independent political groups to break an NPP/NDC dominance.
However, political analysts like Dr Kwame Asah-Asante believe the alliance and Alan’s run as an independent candidate gives them little chance of winning.
“I know that (I am not a prophet of doom), they can’t win the elections. That is a fact and I am speaking as a political scientist. If you look at Ghana’s political system, an independent candidate is like a third force. Third-force parties do not have strength on the surface of Ghana,” Dr Asah-Asante said on a Citi FM programme in April.
“The simple reason is that one – if you look at the electoral system that we have in this country, it is a simple majority system or the first pass the polls system.”
