Volta CPP tags Prof. Delle 93Battle Ready Old General"

Dzodze, June 30, GNA - The Volta Regional Branch of the Convention People's Party (CPP) on Wednesday tagged Professor Edmund N. Delle, aspiring National Chairman and leader of the Party, as "Battle Ready Old General," who has the political grounding to lead the party to make a greater impact in Election 2012. Prof. Delle, who is in the region to campaign for the national chairmanship slot, said the CPP congress was not just to elect just a leader but a leader with the capability and experience to stand out at the 93Inter-Party Chairmen's Caucus".

The Chairmen's Caucus is a body that comprises the National Chairmen of the four Political Parties with representation in Parliament.

These a parties are National Democratic Congress (NDC), New Patriotic Party (NPP), the CPP and the People's National Convention (PNC). Prof. Delle said the Caucus was 93a forum for democratic engagement of political and electoral ideas". "We are going to our congress to elect one person to represent the party at the forum to speak on national issues and serve as a pro-active avenue for conflict resolution." Prof. Delle said the next general election was crucial for the CPP to redeem its dwindling electoral fortunes and reposition itself as a formidable political force.

"It is therefore imperative for the party to have an experienced, committed, competent, visionary, resourceful, principled, independent-minded and results-oriented leader who can mobilise, unite the members and marshal all the necessary resources, both human and material, to contest and make a strong impact in Election 2012," he said.

"Since the advent of the Fourth Republic, the CPP has been on the fringes of the country's political system. The situation seems to be getting worse, given the party's dwindling political fortunes." "Disunity, acrimony and power struggle within the party have not helped matters at all. It is to address these challenges that I envisage the total overhaul of the CPP when given the mandate as the National Chairman and leader," Prof Delle said. He said the overhauling would involve the reactivation of the party's structures from the ward to the National Executive level. It would link all constituency offices to regional offices and then regional offices to the national office in a bid to ensure effective communication.

Prof. Delle has visited Hohoe, Ho and Dzodze. He said there was the need to replenish the party's human resource base through capacity building of its leaders as well as identifiable groups such as the Youth and Women's wings, Tertiary networks, Council of Elders, past and present Members of Parliament and leading members of the party. "The overhauling and replenishing of the CPP will certainly set the party in motion for success in Election 2012 and beyond. However, all these will require hard work from every member of the party," he said.

Mr Prince Ahiadzro, the Volta Regional Chairman, urged all the aspirants to maintain decorum in their campaign "as the unity of the party is more paramount than the ambition of individuals". He appealed to delegates across the country to use their regional conferences to project the party in a "positive light" saying the negative publicity had been the bane of CPP and "eventually we are the losers".

Mr Ahiadzro, who also chairs the CPP Regional Chairmen's Caucus, appealed to all party members, leading members vying for positions from the constituency level to national level, to respect the party's internal mechanism for redress. "In the case of any electoral challenges, please let's use the internal mechanism; we must avoid rushing to the public," he said.