No imposition of candidates in NPP

Contrary to comments by Lord Commey, National Organizer of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) in the Upper East Region to the effect that the party could impose a candidate on a constituency in parliamentary elections, the second National Vice Chairman of the party, Alhaji Abdul Rahaman Musah, has stated that there is no way the party would do that because the party believes in participatory democracy.

Mr. Lord Commey had stated that for strategic reasons, the leadership of the party can decide to disqualify certain qualified parliamentary aspirants of the party from contesting on the ticket of the party.

But Alhaji Ramadan, speaking at a press conference in Takoradi last Sunday after supervising the vetting of parliamentary aspirants in the 'orphaned' constituency pointed out that though they would not impose candidates on the constituencies, they would make sure that only winnable candidates contest in the primaries.

According to him, the party was aware of the legal implications of any attempt to impose candidates on constituents and had already taken steps to avoid any such developments.

The Second Vice Chairman appealed to all those who could not get the chance to contest on the ticket of the party not to go independent as happened during the 2004 elections. He noted that those who deserted the party to contest as independent candidates only succeeded in splitting votes, thus leading to the candidates of the party and they themselves not winning in the elections.

Mr. John Boadu, the national youth organizer who claimed that NPP would win 60% of seats held by the NDC countrywide, said the local alliance they had with CPP worked to perfection and that if other constituencies had avoided bickering and followed the same procedure, they would have won some of the seats NDC is currently holding.

He revealed that the research team of the party had started having what he described as 'strategic review meetings' with the party MPs to find out their achievements and weaknesses in order to plan for the challenges ahead.

John Boadu also said the National Executives believed the NPP government had performed creditably and that there was no way the people of Ghana and - generations yet unborn, would forgive them if they should allow the country to go back to the dark days.

Madam Gifty Aryeh, aka Daavi Ama, the National Treasurer of the party on her part, said the party was going to win more seats in the Volta region this time round because the mindset of the people had changed. According to her, the former national chairman of NDC, Dr. Yao Obed Asamoah, also played a major role for the party and now that he was no more with the NDC, NPP had a brighter chance of winning more seats there. She also expressed the desire of the party to consolidate its leading role in the Central Region.

The Western regional chairman of the party, Nana Owusu Ankomah, said the number of projects that had been executed by the government in the region pointed to the fact that the people would vote massively for the party come 2008. He disclosed that 17 candidates including two women had applied to contest for the eight seats currently held by the NDC in the region. He did not however disclose the outcome of the vetting.