NPP must resist the emergence of personality cult

Kumasi, Feb. 27, GNA - Former President John Agyekum Kufuor, has underlined the need for the New Patriotic Party (NPP) to resist the emergence of personality cult in the party saying, it was not only alien to its tradition but a threat to its unity.

"Personality cult would destroy our party and this must stop", he said at the national delegates' conference underway in Kumasi to elect new national executives to manage the affairs of the party for the next four years on Saturday.

Former President Kufuor told the 4,500 delegates from 230 constituencies gathered at the VIP Wing of the Baba Yara Sports Stadium, not to do anything that would divide them.

He said they should accept to work and hold together to return the NPP to political power in 2012.

"We need each and every one of us together to carry the nation with us", he added.

The theme for the conference is: "Reflect, Rebuild and Re-capture".

The former President, who gave high marks for the Government he led, asked all members of the party to take collective responsibility for its electoral defeat in 2008.

He said they paid the price for complacency and over-confidence as well as the lack of level-playing field in the selection of parliamentary candidates.

Former President Kufuor said transparency had been an enduring trait of their political tradition - underpinning its strength.

He said there should, therefore, be transparency in the election of the party's leaders, devoid of cheating and the cutting of corners.

He pledged to be at the forefront and support leaders who would be elected genuinely to the hilt.

Former President Kufuor said Ghanaians were yearning for the return of the NPP to power and that the party could not afford to disappoint them.

He predicted victory for the party in election 2012.

There were solidarity messages from other political parties except the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC).

GNA