<<Print>>

A flag bearer hopeful of the New Patriotic Party for the 2016 election, Mr Francis Addai Nimoh, has said that though he has reservations about the October 18, 2014 expanded national delegates congress of the party, he is still optimistic of a good show. �My major constraint is time to reach all party delegates, about 141,000 or so,� he told a section of the media in an encounter in Accra last Friday. Expatiating on how his campaign had fared so far, he also bemoaned the manner in which some Members of Parliament and some high-level personnel of the party were openly declaring their support for a particular candidate. He said such actions were against the rules and regulations governing the conduct of the October 18 congress and gave the impression that �our leaders are leading a crusade against impunity�. Mr Addai Nimoh, who is also the Member of Parliament for Mampong, therefore called on every member of the NPP to respect the party�s constitution and protect the unity of the party. On whether he trusted the process leading to the October 18 Congress, the MP for Mampong declared that �as far as the process is concerned, I feel disappointed that our July 17 petition to the National Chairman of the party, Mr Paul Afoko, was not acknowledged�. It would be recalled that five of the seven presidential aspirants on July 21, 2014 requested for a review of the National Council�s decision on the date for the election of a presidential candidate. The five � Mr John Alan Kwadwo Kyerematen, Mr Addai Nimoh, Mr Kofi Osei Ameyaw, Mr Stephen Asamoah Boateng and Dr Kofi Konadu Apraku � said that ��upon the proper interpretation of Article 12, clauses one and two of the party�s constitution, the National Council�s decision to fix the October 18 congress violated the provisions of the constitution and cannot hold in law��. Since then, Mr Joe Ghartey, the Second Deputy Speaker of Parliament and MP for Essikado-Ketan, and Mr Osei Ameyaw, MP for Asuogyaman, who also made the shortlist, have, however, withdrawn from the presidential race to support Nana Akufo-Addo�s bid to become the flag bearer of the party for the 2016 election. According to Mr Addai Nimoh, elections are based on three pillars � freeness, fairness and transparency. He said party officers at all levels should therefore refrain from making open declaration for a particular candidate. He explained that such an action should rather be the gesture for the unity of the party after the congress. He said now that many MPs had openly declared their support for a particular candidate, he would focus his attention on the orphan constituencies of the party. The party has 123 non-orphan constituencies, meaning thery have sitting MPs and 152 orphan constituencies, who are without sitting MPs. �I shall be more tilted in the 152 orphan constituencies because of the open declaration by some MPs,� he told the media. He said the action of Mr Daniel Bugri Naabu, the Northern Regional Chairman of the party, who made some delegates to swear and vote in a special direction during the Special Electoral College was also a worrying development which must never be repeated during the expanded delegates congress. He said there was no correlation between the Special Electoral College and the October 18 Expanded Congress, saying the campaign for the SEC vote was not linear to that of the campaign to win the mandate of the 141,000 delegates. Meanwhile, Mr Addai Nimoh has started his presidential campaign from the Upper West Region. He will be in the Northern, Upper East and Brong Ahafo regions in the course of the week.