Communique of the 3rd NPP International Conference in Hamburg

Accra, June 14, GNA - The following is the communiqu=E9 issued at the end of the 3rd New Patriotic Party (NPP) International Conference held in Hamburg, Germany from 9-12 June.
PREAMBLE
At the 3rd NPP International Conference held in Hamburg, Germany, the General Secretary of the party laid out the 2012 campaign strategy, which he said will be a polling station-based campaign, with an official team of 20 plus any number of committed volunteers at every polling station. This team will send out our message to the people on the ground, get out every single vote for us, protect the ballot and make sure that the will of the people, as expressed by the ballot, is respected and declared. Furthermore, the Party will take every necessarily, legitimate step to make sure that Ghana has a free, fair and transparent parliamentary and presidential elections in 2012. He called on members of our External Branches to make some of their contributions directly to the campaign efforts at the constituency level.
The 2012 Presidential Candidate of the Party, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, used the conference platform to outline his vision and policy direction for Ghana if elected in 2012 and promised to come into office with programmes, not promises. He stated his commitment to building a new society of opportunities, where every Ghanaian has the opportunity to better him or herself, and by so doing better the Ghanaian society. He restated our Party's ideological preference to a system of empowerment to the concept of entitlement as the means of developing the individual and that the NPP way is to give the people a hand up, not a hand out.
Nana Akufo-Addo restated our commitment to (1) deepening democracy, (2) modernising our society, (3) transforming our economy and (4) engaging more actively in West Africa and the continent at large in order that our voice shall help shape the future of an integrated, united Africa.
In this regard, he pledged to invest in building institutions of state and to give them the confidence to serve the wider public interest, not the temporary conveniences of the government of the day.
He stressed our Party's position as the party of business and that his government's business would be to work with the private sector of Ghana to understand their needs, empower them and make them champions of our region. He expressed his commitment to use his term in office to transform the Ghanaian economy in the general effort to win the war against poverty and make Ghana a major economic power in Africa. To Nana Akufo-Addo, the unity of Africa is not an option. It is a necessity. The NPP intends to seize the opportunity to make Ghana a regional centre for light manufacturing industry for a market of some 350 million people, by weaving together our numerous natural resources, like food produce, bauxite, iron ore, oil and gas, with our talents and energy.
However, he warned that it would take more than our rich natural resources to win the war enduring against poverty. His highest priority, therefore, is to nurture the intellectual property of the Ghanaian. The NPP will do so by making it possible for every Ghanaian child to gain access to quality education, making science education more attractive, making the SHS the first point of exit for students, stopping the phenomenon of mass failure in examinations and achieve all this by putting the 91teacher first.' Finally, the NPP intends to enhance quality of education in every public school in Ghana in our overriding goal of building a new society of opportunities by committing, by legislation, a significant and constant percentage of our GDP to education.
THE CONFERENCE:
1. Congratulates the National Executive Committee of the Party for the successful implementation of the 2009 constitutional reforms which have seen a significant expansion of the electoral colleges for both parliamentary and presidential primaries
2. further congratulates the leadership and rank and file of the Party for completing, with remarkable efficiency and all-round commendation, the important process of rebuilding the party, culminating in the highly successful presidential primary of August 2010 and parliamentary primaries of April 2011
3. also notes and commends our Presidential Candidate for his sterling leadership and relentless efforts in getting all hands on deck and providing the Party with a winnable vision to prosecute the 2012 general elections
4. commits the External Branches to play a full and significant role in the Party's 2012 campaign strategy and activities at all levels -- national, constituency and polling station
5. Urges the Party to commit to arrange accreditation for all our External Branches members committed to acting in any official capacity for the Party prior to and during the 2012 general elections
6. resolves to commit ourselves to procure resources to support the national campaign and to help in strengthening the national party with the provision of logistics, ideas and personnel in the areas of communication and organization and for the full and active participation of women and the youth in the campaign
7. calls on the Party's relevant official and leading members, including the Presidential Candidate, to commit to supporting the efforts of the External Branches to secure resources for the campaign whenever and whichever way possible, in accordance with the applicable laws of Ghana 8. calls upon the International Desk at the Party headquarters to give the External Branches reasonable notice, per the Electoral Commission's timetable, of the impending national voters' registration exercise to enable our members and the Ghanaian community in their respective countries, who are eligible to vote, to come home and register to vote in 2012
9. resolves to make policy contributions to the drafting of the Party's 2012 Manifesto within the next month, which should include, among other things, the sufficient redress of the issue of citizenship of Ghanaians living abroad as well as finding a more effective way of dealing with the affairs of Ghanaians living abroad, taking into account their diverse and substantial contributions made in support of the national economy
10. being aware of the serious consequences of human tragedy due to electoral malpractices in other African countries and the need to enhance Ghana's enviable role as the pacesetter for democracy in Africa, calls on the international community to support the Ghanaian people's desire for credible elections and exert the required, legitimate pressure on the Government of Ghana for a peaceful, free, fair and transparent election process, before, during and after ballots are cast and counted in 2012
11. enjoins the leadership of the Party to continue exerting the necessary legitimate pressure on the Electoral Commission and the government to ensure a free, fair and transparent elections in 2012
12. supports the general call of Ghanaians for a credible, verifiable biometric register that is transparent, accurate and reflective of registered voters at each polling station in a timely manner
13. calls on the Electoral Commission to stick to its declared programme to provide a biometric voter register for the 2012 general elections
14. calls for an introduction of stiffer criminal sanctions that specifically impose harsh penal sentence for any person convicted of double voter registration and any other electoral offence
15. demands of Government to provide the necessary and timely logistical support for the Electoral Commission
16. regrets, with the process of calendar for compiling a new voter register already in place, that Government is yet to show how it intends to fund the biometric voter registration exercise
17. therefore, demands of Government to identify and allocate immediately the necessary budgetary provision to the Electoral Commission for the process of the biometric voter registration exercise

18. whereas, welcomes biometric registration as a necessary check against a bloated voter register, it would not be a sufficient check against voter impersonation, ballot box stuffing, multiple voting and related incentives for voter intimidation and harassment unless a system of biometric voter authentication is available at every polling station


19. therefore, calls on the Electoral Commission to put in place at every polling station an electronic facility that will identify the biometric data of every voter before a ballot paper is issued to every voter

20. calls on the Government of President J.E.A. Mills to stop the intimidation and victimization of NPP supporters by his agents and supporters and tackle the culture of impunity that is being institutionalized under his leadership


21. further calls on the Government of President Mills to show a greater commitment to good governance and tackling the issue of growing youth unemployment, corruption, poverty and lack of business confidence.