Don't blame your defeat on Executives

Kumasi, Sept. 5, GNA - Aspiring Parliamentary candidates, who contested and lost in the primaries have been advised to cease blaming their defeat on either the National, Regional or Constituency Executives of the various political parties.

Odeneho Kwaku Appiah, Immediate Past President of Youth in Action, a confederation of youth groups, who gave the advice, said instead of accusing other groups and individuals, they should rather blame it on their own poor strategies and planning.

Odeneho Appiah gave the advice when he spoke at a day's seminar held for a cross section of youth groups of the Kumasi Metropolis, in Kumasi on Saturday on: "Should Politics Divide Us as a Nation?" He said what the defeated aspirants should appreciate was that in every contest there was bound to be only one winner and losers, and for that matter they should accept "their defeat in good faith and in good grace".

Odeneho Appiah, who also lost at the New Patriotic Party (NPP) primary in the Kwabre-West Constituency, stressed the need for the losers to perceive the loss as an opportunity for them to sit back, assess their plans and re-strategise towards winning the next primaries in 2008.

He bemoaned the tendency of some of the candidates who lost the primaries, threatening to breakaway from their mother parties and to contest Election 2004 as independent candidates, and advised them to desist from such a move.

Odeneho Appiah agreed that even though they had the right of choice, breaking away would not augur well for their political career or for their respective parties.

He however, suggested to the respective political parties too, not to ignore such threats but initiate moves to dialogue with the losers in order to retain them in the party.

Odeneho Appiah said he was also not happy that supporters of some of the candidates, who won the election, went about threatening the supporters of the losers.

He advised them to refrain from such acts, since it did not augur well for development of the parties or growth of democracy. Mr Benjamin Ofori, Organiser of the Programme and Head of the Youth Groups, entreated the electorate to vote for candidates on merit and their capacity to deliver the goods and to resist any attempts by politician to influence them with either monetary or material offers.