Mahama calls on NPP to lead the way in fair play

Accra, Jan. 7, GNA - Mr John Mahama (NDC-Bole Bamboi) on Friday urged the New Patriotic Party (NPP) to lead the way in ensuring that political parties played according to the rules of the game to move the democratic process forward.

Mr Mahama was reacting to President John Agyekum Kufuor's inaugural address, where he appealed to his fellow politicians to make special effort to play by the rules and rebuild confidence in politics and political institutions.

"We must try to acknowledge that in trying to destroy our political opponents, we often end up destroying the confidence of the people we seek to lead and instead plant mistrust that becomes impossible to uproot. Ghana deserves better," President Kufuor said at the beginning of his second term of office.

Mr Mahama said since the ruling NPP held the Executive position they should be the pacesetters in ensuring fair play in the political arena.

The MP expressed satisfaction about the whole inaugural ceremony and said it was a good sign that a number of Heads of State, especially in the West Africa Sub-Region, were able to make it to the programme. Mr George Aguddey, the CPP Presidential Candidate in Election 2004, said President's Kufuor call for fair play was out of place because the President himself was guilty of seeking to destroy other political parties.

In apparent reference to the close association of Dr Paa Kwesi Nduom, the CPP MP for Komenda/Edina.Eguafo/Abrem with the NPP, Mr Aguddey said the President's support for certain candidates from other political parties showed that NPP was not ready to play a fair game. Mr Dan Lartey, Leader of the Great Consolidated Peoples Party, said the only way to ensure that all political parties played their roles well was for the State to fund these parties to make them function properly.

The Chief of Tepa in the Ashanti Region, Nana Adusei Atwenewa Ampim, said it was time to grow the country's democracy and called for unity.