NDC opens nominations for Parliamentary Candidate

Nomination of parliamentary candidates to contest the 2004 Elections on the ticket of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) has opened in the 18 constituencies of the Eastern Region.

The NDC National Organiser, Mr Samuel Ofosu-Ampofo announced this at the opening of a day's Regional Executives' Meeting of the party at Koforidua.

He said the nomination forms would be screened at the constituency, regional and national levels in September and the constituency primaries would start in October and end by December throughout the country.

Mr Ofosu-Ampofo said the party would organise forums and rallies in the Region dubbed: "Kafo Didi" to explain to party members the reasons for the recent "Survival Demonstration" in Accra.

He said: "The burden imposed on Ghanaians by the Highly Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Initiative far outweighs the so called benefits that were being trumpeted by the New Patriotic Party (NPP) all over the place."

Mr Ofosu-Ampofo accused the government of diverting the money meant for the District Assemblies' Common Fund (DACF) into the HIPC Fund saying that while the DACF were in arrears, government had been releasing money into the districts as HIPC Fund.

Mr Fred Ohene-Kena, NDC Regional Chairman, called on constituency chairpersons of the party in the Region to mobilise and sensitise members to enable the NDC to start working towards regaining power in 2004.

He urged functionaries to reactivate the branches of the NDC for effective party activities adding that it had established an effective machinery to inform its supporters on issues concerning the party and national development to prevent political opponents from misinforming and confusing them.

The Member of Parliament (MP) for Lower Manya, Mr Michael Nyawonu said the government was more in favour of disbursement of HIPC Fund to the districts, which NPP functionaries considered as "party fund for sharing."

The MP said many District Chief Executives have been awarding contracts under the HIPC Fund without reference to the District Tender Boards and cited examples in the Manya-Krobo District.

Mr Nyawonu said HIPC Funds was released for the construction of an abattoir in a community in the District instead of the initiation of more economically viable projects to generate revenue for the development of the district.

The MP criticised the late payment of salaries of government workers and called on the Ministry of Finance Economic Planning and the Controller and Accountant General's Department to reverse the trend to "stop putting unnecessary pressure on workers".