NPP Confab: Kufuor And Alan...Missing In Action After Declaration Of Results

The election of new set of National leadership to lead the New Patriotic Party in its quest to recapture power in 2012, may have ended successful and peacefully, but some mind-boggling events that transpired at the venue will continually be on people�s lips. A few minutes after the final declaration of results by officials of the Electoral Commission (EC), some notable figures of the NPP, including former President John Agyekum Kufuor and 2008 flagbearer aspirant, Alan Kwadwo Kyeremanteng, were conspicuously missing in action, thus confirming speculations that the pro-Nana Addo camp had run riot over the other factions at the NPP�s National Delegates Conference at the Baba Yara Sports Stadium in Kumasi. Remarkably, whiles the 2008 Flag bearer of the party, Nana Addo Dankwa Akuffo-Addo was visibly present, together with his running mate, Dr. Mahamadu Bawumia, even during the swearing-in of the newly-elected executives, some NPP stalwarts such former Vice-President Aliu Mahama and Minority Leader, Hon. Osei Kyei Mensah-Bonsu had left the congress grounds. Perhaps due to the long hours of voting. It took eight grueling hours for the over 4,000 delegates of the New Patriotic party to cast their ballots for their various candidates at a conference which was very peaceful and cordial. Thirty-two candidates contested for eight national positions. The positions included the Chairman, First and Second Vice Chairmen, General Secretary, National Organiser, Youth Organiser, Women�s Organiser and Treasurer. The platform on which the speeches were delivered was mounted on the edge of the football pitch facing the delegates and the press, and all the contestants and senior members of the party were made to sit in the VVIP stance. After the results were declared, the newly-elected Executives were immediately sworn in before the first day of the 15th National Delegates Conference of the NPP ended. At the end of the day, former Minister of Tourism in the erstwhile New Patriotic Party (NPP) administration, Jake Okanta Obetsebi Lamptey, defeated his closet rival Stephen Ntim, to win the National Chairmanship position of the NPP, when he secured 2,030 of the delegates� votes whiles Stephen Ntim polled 1804 votes. The conference will be climaxed with a church service on Sunday, 28th February, 2010.