Democratic Freedom Party
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Democratic Freedom Party
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| Chairman | Alhaji Abdul Rahaman Issah |
| 2008 Presidential candidate | Emmanuel Ansah-Antwi |
| Founder | Dr. Obed Asamoah |
| Founded | 2006 |
| Headquarters | Accra, Ghana |
| Motto | Service in freedom |
| Ideology | Social democracy |
| Colors | Red, white, violet and green |
The Democratic Freedom Party (DFP) was a political party in Ghana. It was formed in 2006 and eventually merged with the National Democratic Congress in 2011. It came in fourth place in the Ghanaian election of 2008 with 0.33% of the total vote.
The formation of the Democratic Freedom Party was announced in February, 2006 by Dr. Obed Asamoah, former chairman of the National Democratic Congress, as a viable third party alternative to the National Democratic Congress and the New Patriotic Party. This follows a split between a Rawlings faction and an Asamoah faction within the NDC. The founding members include former leading members of the NDC such as Dr. Obed Asamoah, immediate past chairman of the NDC and also a former Attorney General and Foreign minister in the Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC) and NDC governments among others. There are other founding members from the Nkrumahist tradition as well.
On June 29, 2006, Dr. Obed Asamoah stated that the party was aware of the expectations of the Ghanaian people to see the launch of the party and added that they had completed all of the necessary formalities to register the new party.
The party received its final electoral certificate on October 20, 2006 allowing it to function as a political party in Ghana.
As of 2007, the Interim Chairman of the party is Alhaji Abdul Rahaman Issah.
In 2011, the DFP merged with the National Democratic Congress. It was put under pressure when Aba Folson, the National Treasurer of the party, claimed that the merger was not based on a consensus by the party.
The DFP was formed to provide Ghanaians with an alternative to the NPP and NDC. The party aimed to swallow the floating votes in the country based on the idea that current policies in the country are not beneficial to the majority of the Ghanaian people. Dr. Obed Asamoah stated in an interview on June 5, 2008 that it was of utmost importance to the DFP for Ghanaian politics to shift from the use of insults to garner votes to a more policy and development focused political campaign.
In the 2008 elections, the DFP centered its campaigning around promoting agricultural development in Ghana to reduce poverty and hunger in the country. Given the presidential seat in Ghana, it planned to subsidize agriculture and to place taxes that promoted the purchasing of local commodities over foreign goods.
As said at a DFP press conference in April 2008: “the DFP believes that if agriculture is well developed, it is capable of moving this country faster than any other sector, probably except oil which is yet to be drilled.”
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Wikipedia