NPP targets 140 seats - Botwe

The New Patriotic Party (NPP) is targeting to win not less than 140 seats in the next elections, its General Secretary, Dan Botwe has said.

"To bring this ambition to fruition, we have begun our campaign for the 2004 elections by putting in place the necessary mechanisms to strengthen our organisational sub-structures and make sure that our government performs creditably to make us worthy to be re-elected".

Mr. Botwe told Sunyani-based Sky FM radio in a telephone interview that despite the tremendous goodwill the party was enjoying, it was not going to be complacent because it wanted to take the next election by storm.

"We have a very bright chance to retain power but we also know that the margin of our victory will depend on the performance of the government and how well we strengthen our organisational structures and train and equip our agents".

Rating last weekend's national congress of the party as "highly successful," Mr. Botwe denied that some contestants were compelled by party gurus to step down to boost the chances of their favourites. "The NPP is a party that absolutely believes in freedom of choice and could therefore not have forced qualified people to step down, and as such I can only say that those who stood down did so purely on personal grounds".

The NPP General Secretary described as unfortunate the failure of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the National Reform Party (NRP) to attend the congress even though they were all given invitation letters.

On President Kufuor's call for a debate on state sponsorship of political parties, he said the idea was worth considering since it was done in most democracies as part of measures to nurture and deepen multi-party culture.

"What perhaps we need to do is to find a workable basis for qualification so that people do not form parties just to rip off the state".

In another interview, Alhaji Huudu Yahaya, General Secretary of the NDC also endorsed in principle, the call for state sponsorship of parties but cautioned that it could only be adequately considered in the contest of the health of the national economy.

"The NDC is not against the principle but what we have always said is that it can only be adequately considered when the health of the country's economy is such that it can shoulder the additional burden in the face of competing demands".

Alhaji Yahaya denied that the NDC refused to attend the NPP congress, stressing "as I speak to you on this Monday morning, no letter of invitation from the NPP has reached my office".

The NDC General Secretary said the party's re-organisation exercise had done "extremely well" and come December, it would go to congress to elect new national executives who would lead the party to re-possess power in the 2004 elections.