NPP aspirants promised fair deal

The national leadership of the governing New Patriotic Party has again assured the nineteen presidential aspirants of the party that the electoral processes and procedures leading to the election of the party's flagbearer would be fair and transparent.

They have also pledged that the integrity of the electoral process would not be compromised.

Peter Mac Manu, NPP National Chairman, reiterated this assurance in a press statement issued yesterday on last Monday's meeting between President Kufuor and 17 of the aspirants at the Castle, Osu. Boakye Agyarko and John Kwame Kodua were absent

According to the statement, the crucial meeting which lasted for about three hours was called at the instance of the Members of the Council of Elders of the NPP and the discussions were frank, open, decorous and civil.

According to the statement, the two major concerns raised by the aspirants were the alleged support of the President for Alan Kyerematen, and the selection of the delegates for the December 22 congress of the party.

To ensure fairness and transparency, each aspirant is to nominate a representative who would be briefed regularly by the party's leadership on the process for presidential aspirants to be conversant with whatever goes on, the statement said.

President Kufuor, on his part, reiterated his earlier denial of supporting any particular presidential aspirant and reiterated that it was "important for all the aspirants to feel the heat of the internal competition as a useful preparation for the more intense competition during the General Elections.”

Former National Chairman S A Odoi-Sykes reminded the presidential aspirants that the party had gone through similar congresses since 1992 to elect its flagbearer.

Going down memory lane, he stated that each of the congresses had been characterised by tensions and anxieties yet, “cool heads had prevailed eventually to maintain the unity and team spirit of the party.”

He advised the aspirants to work towards the unity of the party, which they all agreed to do in the interest of the party, the statement said.

In another development, current NPP National Chairman Peter Mac Manu leaves Accra today for Kampala, Tanzania, to attend a leadership and Executive Meeting of the Democratic Union of Africa from the 18th to 20th October 2007. He will be accompanied by Opare-Ansah, MP for Suhum, and the Upper East regional Chairman of the NPP.

Mr Mac Manu is the Chairman of DUA, a union of democratic centre-right political parties in Africa, adhering to and upholding democratic tenets such as individual freedom, human rights, economic freedoms and property owning rights as well as supporting the society's weak and vulnerable to enable them stand on their own.

DUA is an affiliate of the International Democratic Union, an international union of democratic political parties.