CPP goes to congress on Sept. 19

The Convention Peoples Party (CPP) has fixed September 18 and 19 for its National Delegates Congress to elect national officers to steer the affairs of the party for the next four years.

Ghana News Agency information within the party indicates that nomination would be opened from August 12 to August 31, whilst vetting of nominees is slated for September 7 and 8.

The GNA source said the Congress would be preceded by a meeting of National Executive Council (NEC) of the party on Friday, September 18 to approve the agenda for the congress.

The Congress would bring together constituencies, regional executives, the NEC, Council of Elders, Founding Members, the CPP's only Member of Parliament, Overseas branches, Youth and Women leagues and representatives from TEWSCHART.

The GNA source said the party has also fixed July 25 for the Upper East Regional congress; Central Region congress is fixed for July 31 and the Greater Accra Region, August 1.

History was made on September 2011, when the CPP, after series of postponements of its National Delegates Congress, elected three women for the party’s topmost positions, to manage the affairs of the party for the next four years.

The daughter of the first President of the Republic of Ghana, Samia Yaba Nkrumah, became the first female to chair a major political party in the history of the country, when she polled 1,151 to outwit her three other contestants, including the incumbent, Ladi Nylander, who polled 353 votes.

A former Chairperson of the party, Prof. Edmund Delle, who could not fathom why the party was still lagging behind the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the New Patriotic Party (NPP), which made him enter the race, managed 322 votes, whilst the other female candidate, Madam Araba Bentsi-Enchil, bagged 10 votes.

The other two female candidates, who won the admiration of the over 2,000 delegates from the ten regions of the country, were Susana Adu Amankwa, First Vice Chairperson and Rodaline Imoro Ayarna, Second Vice Chairperson.

The outgoing executives were elected into office in 2007 to ensure victory for the party in the 2008 general elections, but the party performed abysmally in the first round of the elections, recording only 113,494 of the total valid votes cast, representing 1.34, and securing only one parliamentary seat.

Other positions contested for were the National Youth Organiser, National Women’s Organiser, National Organiser, National Treasurer and General Secretary.

For the National Youth Organiser, Mohammed Mutala polled 802 votes to secure victory, ahead of Kadiri Abdul Rauf Issifu and Francis Oppai Tetteh, who pulled 570 and 486 votes respectively.

The position of National Women’s Organiser went to Madam Mary Ankumah Boakye-Boateng, who got 917 votes to beat her two other contestants, whilst Mr. Forgor Abubakar polled 1,093 votes to emerge as National Organiser of the CPP, ahead of two other contestants.