UK Hails NPP Delegates; Expects Even Bigger Victory For Akufo-Addo In October

Akufo-Addo for 2016, UK, wishes to congratulate Nana Akufo-Addo and the entire NPP Special Electoral College for the peaceful and successful congress held on 31/08/2014. It was a remarkable reminder of the NPP's democratic credentials in Africa. Well done!

We also wish to extend our gratitude to the National Executives for ensuring an incident free, well managed congress. Our special thank you goes out to all the other contestants. They did their best. They have also behaved maturely since Sunday's results.

We note with considerable satisfaction that the 81% majority endorsement given to Nana Akufo-Addo was the biggest margin of victory for any presidential candidate in a competitive leadership contest in the NPP's history. This is a party united in who it wants, Akufo-Addo; - united in what it wants, power in 2016, and have no desire to compromise on these two key goals.

It is but a wake-up call to the party's detractors and their propaganda that the NPP was divided. The NPP is in good shape and will only grow stronger once the leadership question is formally settled.

We take note of the fact that the NPP had never been as united as it is today. It is united at the grassroots behind Akufo-Addo and, as Sunday's poll showed, it is equally united at the leadership level, from the constituency upwards, behind the most popular and marketable politician in Ghana today, Nana Akufo-Addo. The message is clear, if 31/08/14 results are anything to go by, that, 4 out of every 5 of the 140,000 delegates have endorsed Nana Akufo-Addo. We in the UK firmly believe that there is no better opinion poll than the exercise which has just been carried out.

Our special thanks to all the delegates from the overseas branches of the party, who voted according to the wishes of their members here who delegated them to vote in Ghana on their behalf. As the party goes to congress on 18/10/14, we are confident that the delegates who directed their constituency and regional executives to endorse Nana Akufo-Addo for 2016 will themselves get the opportunity to express this desire loud and clear.

We, the volunteers for Akufo-Addo both in Ghana and abroad, are looking forward to the National Congress scheduled for October 18, 2014, whether it will be a contest or an acclamation, either of which the party constitution provides. We are very confident that the margin of Akufo-Addo's victory in October will even be larger than the 81% he received at the Special Electoral College Sunday.

However, this is not the time to celebrate. This is the time for the vast majority of us to open up our arms wider and embrace the few who supported the others. We must work harder to maintain and build on the unity that is in the NPP today and focus our energies and resources on preparing ourselves to show to the Ghanaian people that they, indeed, have a competent government in waiting in the NPP.

We in the UK wish to assure Akufo-Addo that we are determined to work even harder to play an even bigger role with our minds, bodies and resources in helping the party to win and protect the ballot better in 2016. He shall not be robbed again!

We wish to end by acknowledging the important gesture from Hon. Joe Ghartey, MP, who polled joint third Sunday yet decided to pull out of the October contest. We thank him for responding positively to the reality on the ground, which is that the party has made up its mind already on Akufo-Addo as our undisputed 2016 Presidential Candidate.

We in the UK are confident about the direction the NPP is going. The message from Sunday is that the party is eager to rally behind its candidate to focus on addressing the concerns of the ordinary people of Ghana and prepare to secure victory in 2016 to put Ghana back to work. Ghana deserves a leader who thinks about the next generation.

God bless NPP.
.....Singed......
Andrews Owusu Osei

Media Liaison Officer
Akufo-Addo for 2016, UK

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