Owusu-Adjapong Files As 15th Aspirant

A former Minister of Parliamentary Affairs, Mr Felix Owusu-Adjapong, has asked all New Patriotic Party (NPP) faithful to demand proof from people who claim that President J.A. Kufuor is supporting any aspirant.

He the president had stated on several occasions that he was not backing any particular candidate. “I always want to assume that the 'Gentle Giant' was being candid with the party and the nation, especially those of us contesting.”

The three-time Member of Parliament (MP) for Akyem Swedru who is vying for the position of presidential candidate of the NPP was briefing the media at his operations headquarters in Accra yesterday.

This was after he had filed his nomination as the 15th aspirant to do so, at the party's headquarters in Accra at exactly 10 a.m. as he had promised the media. He also started his press conference at exactly 11 a.m.

There was no fanfare at the party headquarters, unlike the previous ones. The aspirant who was accompanied by his wife, three daughters and a few supporters, presented all his documents, separated into three different folders.

He also paid the mandatory Gh¢25,000 as the filing fee.
He told the General Secretary of the NPP, Nana Ohene Ntow, that although he needed 10 persons from each of the 10 regions to sign for him, he had, in some cases four times the number who signed for him.

He also attached his Popular Front Party (PFP) founding member certificate to the documents he presented.
Mr Owusu-Adjapong also urged party members to resist the temptation of moving round using the President's name to solicit votes for any particular candidate and cautioned district chief executives and regional ministers about the dangers that might befall them should any of them either expressly or by omission do anything to contradict the President.

“I am sure the DCEs are aware that according to the NPP constitution they have no role to play when it comes to NPP matters but at best, are only beneficiaries of the success story of the NPP through President Kufuor”, he said.

With regards to the selection of delegates, he said he was in agreement with the National Chairman, Mr Peter Mac Manu, when he indicated at the meeting with the presidential applicants that this was not the first time the NPP was going for a congress and that as it had always been, it was the constituency chairman who convened and presided over any such meeting with the regional leadership of the party as observers.

Mr Owusu-Adjapong said his enquiries from most would-be aspirants indicated that those claiming to have done opinion polls had never contacted them. He urged those who wanted to do opinion polls to reframe their questionnaires to secure the right answers.

He said such pollsters should focus on four qualities he had prescribed in the selection of the NPP presidential candidate.

He mentioned the qualities as; a good party person who can unite the party and eventually the country, a person who was desired by floating voters or the marginalised of the other political parties as well as a good party person with reasonable qualification and experience.

Story by Donald Ato Dapatem