President Kufour won't vote again in NPP

According to Mr. Frank Agyekum, f ormer President John Agyekum Kufuor will no longer be voting in NPP's internal party elections.

Former President John Agyekum Kufuor did not vote in Sunday's voting exercise to prune the number of the candidates seek­ing to lead the New Patriotic Party (NPP) presidential ticket.

This is to preserve his status as an elder of the party, his Spokesperson, Frank Agyekum has revealed.

"He is part of the process but he is not voting because he sees himself as an elder statesman on both na­tional and party affairs. The process and the tensions in the NPP as it is today, it is best if he doesn't show his support for one candidate or the other."

"He has given his express condi­tion that he supports whoever emerges as the winner from today's process as well as in October so he wants to put that into practice. And that's why he is not voting, but he thinks it is a good process the party itself has arranged for this mecha­nism to vet its candidates so we have a sizeable number going into the pri­maries in October. And he believes that if we go by the regulations of the party and there are no short-cuts and nobody tries to circumvent the process, we will have a very good process," he added.

He denied that Mr. Kufuor made the decision because he no longer cares about the NPP saying "democ­racy has to be nurtured, it doesn't just happen. And as much as he be­lieves in democracy, he feels it will be best for the party if he stays out of the fray and let the people choose their leaders and then he can sup­port them. He has told all of the can­didates that he is. not going to sup­port any of them but he will support the winner. And that's why he is not voting."

When asked how the former presi­dent felt about claims that he was supporting one of the aspirants in the election, Mr Agyekum said that the people who made the claims "must be ashamed of what they said about him."

"He has given his word and he has kept it. Nothing at all is gained by people speculating wrongly and cast­ing the wrong allegations when they have no basis. The former president has thought through it and that is why he is staying out of the fray and allow the process to gel. Once a win­ner emerges, he will offer his sup­port to him and then perhaps nobody can come and accuse him wrongly the way they did."

He added that Mr. Kufuor would be unable to monitor the process in the country as he was "on his way now to Addis Ababa to attend a meet­ing by an agricultural research organisation that had asked him to be present."