Parties Get Busy

With just about fifty-seven days to go for presidential and parliamentary elections in Ghana, the various political parties got busy last week.

The National Reform Party which is basing its strength on grass-roots organisation launched its campaign with a Peoples Summit in Wa, the capital of the Upper West Region. The Summit brought community leaders of Upper West together in a rare encounter for the national leadership to listen to the people of the region and determine what everybody can do to bring progress to the country.

The Peoples' Summit, according to Mije Barnor of the Publicity Committee of the Reform Party will be repeated in all the regional capitals before election day to enable the party's flagbearer, Goosie Tannoh and his running mate, Cletus Kosiba who have been touring the Upper West Region to interact with the variouis communities. The next party to take its act to Wa was the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) who as reported earlier by The Independent, held its first rally for this year's elections in the Upper West regional capital.

Last Sunday, the party in a show of unity and solidarity launched the presidential bid of Veep John Evans Atta Mills. Present to show his support and tell the world that he will be on the campiagn trail with his heir-apparent was President Jerry John Rawlings, who had just returned from Tripoli the previous day. Also present was Mrs. Nana Konadu-Agyeman Rawlings as well as other leading members of the party including General Secretary Huudu Yahaya and presidential advisor Alhaji Mahama Idrissu.

Conspicuously absent was the party's treasurer, Dr. Obed Asamoah who made an abortive bid for the running mate slot. In Accra, last Friday, the Presidential candidate of the United Ghana Movement (UGM) Dr. Charles Wereko Brobby lauched the party's manifesto with a declaration that the UGM has the best programmes and policies to save Ghana.

Known for his thought-provoking and radical position on national issues, Dr. Brobby told the well-attended congress that a UGM government will abolish the national service scheme and replace it with a system that will motivate graduates to stay in Ghana and work.

Under the package, those Ghanaian graduates who choose to serve the nation will be rewarded with incentives including scholarships for further studies, the UGM Flagbearer said. Again in Accra, the Greater Accra branch of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) launched its election campaign code-named OPERATION 2000 GRASSROOTS ELEPHANT WALK at the Teachers Hall.

The function brought together parliamentary candidates and constituency chairmen of the twenty-two constituencies in the region. The Convention Peoples Party (CPP) took their campaign to the Western Region, where reports say that Professor George Hagan addressed a rally at Essiama after launching the Western Regional campaign of the CPP at the home town of the CPP's founder, Dr. Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah.

Meanwhile political broadcasts sponsored by the Ghana Boroadcasting Corporation as part of its constitutional duty to provide equal and fair opportunity for all political parties have started on Ghana Television.