CPP Denounces NPP

The Convention People?s Party (CPP) has abrogated its support for the New Patriotic Party (NPP). They accuse the NPP of continuing with the ?negative policies of the National Democratic Congress (NDC)?, which they were against.

They claim that contrary to its pronouncements, the NPP is running the country undemocratically as it persistently fails to subject vital national issues to public debate for views before taking decisions.

The was disclosed by the National Chairman of the party Dr Abubakar Alhassan, at a one day seminar held for members of the CPP and the National Reform party at Tema on Saturday. The seminar was under the theme ?building a progressive activist political platform?.

He mentioned as examples, the issue of Highly Indebted Poor Country (HIPC) initiative, the one billion dollar IFC loan and the privatisation of the Ghana Water Company for which the government has still not opened public debate to enable it factor for the views of the common Ghanaians.

Dr. Alhassan called on the government not to push through the harsh steps and challenged it to open a public debate on the water privatisation issue as early as possible.

He warned against going in for the IFC loan, which according to him attracts an advance interest of three and half percent because it will compound the plight of Ghanaians.

Earlier, the General Secretary of the NRP Kyeretwie Opoku had announced the intention of the NRP and CPP to engender an alliance of the two parties to go for congress in August 2003, Should all discussions and plans go through smoothly and successfully.

At that congress, a proposed platform document and constitution of the merged party would be laid before members for discussions and approval. The document will contain events covering all sectors of the economy affecting the status of the ordinary Ghanaian.

Mr. Kyeretwie Opoku indicated that a merger of the two parties is feasible and when it finally succeeds, it would undertake positive actions to prove to critics that, discussions on the merger started behind the scenes in January last year is now ready to go public?.

He said the two parties have common ideologies of Nkrumahism and, therefore, saw the need to come together for the sake of the masses in order to change the socio-economic hardships that still persists even under the NPP.

The merger has been fashioned as a move to build a modern, disciplined and voluntary political organisation that requires commitment on the part of members who must be prepared to support it financially and exhibit leadership skills to ensure success.

?We are not going in for the merger to amass wealth, we want a radical and fundamental change of society, economic justice, security and safety for Ghanaians. There is no sound economic reason why people continue to be hungry, while others do not basic education?.

Kyeretwie Opoku was of the view that should they succeed with their plans and programmes, there would be no need for the institution of national reconciliation since it would address all the issues involved.