GCPP postpones National Delegates' Congress

Accra, April 19, GNA - The Great Consolidated Popular Party (GCPP) on Thursday postponed its National Delegates' Congress to elect a presidential candidate for Elections 2008 from April 28 to September due to organisational constraints.

The Congress is now slated for Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi.

The Congress would also elect 16 other people to take up various positions within the party, including the National Chairman, First and Second National Chairmen, General Secretary and Deputy General Secretary among others, Mr Dan Lartey, Acting Chairman of GCPP told the Ghana News Agency in an interview in Accra on Thursday.

Other positions to be contested for include National Treasurer, National Organiser, Education Secretary, Women Organiser and Youth Leader.

Mr Lartey, who assumed the Acting Chairmanship position in 2005 when its Chairman, Mr Ebenezer Benjamin Mensah died, said about 920 delegates, including the party's aspiring parliamentary candidates for the 230 constituencies would attend.

He said four delegates each from all the 230 constituencies would attend the September Congress, which would also discuss the Party's Constitution.

Mr Lartey, who has indicated his intention to contest to be the Party's flagbearer, said he had been at the forefront of mobilising and re-organising the party, selecting its delegates and raising funds for the September Congress.

On reasons for postponing the Congress to September, Mr Lartey said this was to enable them to organise from the grassroots, hold regional conferences and constituency elections to elect officers to pave the way for the National Congress.

He said the party had already registered some aspiring parliamentary candidates from the 230 constituencies who had signed the necessary documents to contest in Elections 2008 on the ticket of the party.

Commenting on the resignation of the GCPP's General Secretary, Mr John Ameka who has joined the newly formed Democratic Freedom Party (DFP), Mr Lartey said it was a blessing in disguise. "I warmly welcomed Mr Ameka's exit, as he served as a stumbling block to the progress of GCPP," Mr Lartey said.