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Mr Jake Otanka Obetsebi-Lamptey occupies the first place on the ballot sheets for aspirants of the national chairmanship position of the New Patriotic Party (NPP). This was the outcome of a secret balloting conducted at the party's headquarters at Asylum Down in Accra on Monday, March 17, 2014. He is followed by Stephen Ntim, Paul Afoko and Fred Oware in that order (on the ballot sheets). A Ga, the incumbent National Chairman of the NPP is privileged to be one of the persons who met regularly at the late Hon. Stephen Krakue�s home to plan and execute the transformation of the Danquah-Busia Club into the New Patriotic Party. Politician As a professional communicator, he was given the task of working on the identity of the party. He worked with Dan Quaye, an artist, to design the NPP flag, colours, symbols and other visual identity items. As first chairman of the publicity committee, he handled publicity and media for presidential candidate Professor Adu Boahen during the 1992 campaign. As was the practice in those early difficult times when party members sacrificed to fund party activities, Jake paid for much of the publicity campaign activities from his own pocket and resources. Sacrifices Sacrificing for the party is not something that started after 2000. Mr Obetsebi-Lamptey contested the national chairmanship in 1995, and came second to the late Peter Ala Adjetey. As Chairman of the Communications Committee, he founded the NPP News with Ferdinand Ayim. The newspaper was able to make a small contribution to party overheads. In 1997, he successfully contested the Regional Chairmanship of Greater Accra. He was re-elected twice more, serving a total of three terms as regional chairman before stepping down in 2005. During his chairmanship, the party, for the first time in the Danquah-Dombo-Busia tradition, since 1947, became the majority party in Greater Accra, as evident in winning the Accra Central (Odododiodoo) and Osu (Klottey Korle) seats. For the 2000 elections, he was appointed the campaign manager for the J.A. Kufuor campaign. Mr Obetsebi-Lamptey worked hard on the presentation of the candidate and the party and also worked hard to reduce the level of manipulation at the polling station. He introduced the innovation of �voters tally sheet� and heightened awareness that the NPP would put itself into position to be able to ensure that correct results were declared. The campaign saw the transfer of power through the ballot box for the first time in Ghana�s political history. In 2004, Jake was again appointed campaign manager for the successful re-election of President J.A.Kufuor. In government, he had many appointments, starting with being the first Chief of Staff during the transition from the NDC to the NPP era. At that time, only President Kufuor and Mr J.H. Mensah had ever served in government before and there were fears that some elements might try to reverse the NPP �s election victory. Contested flag bearer In 2007, Mr Obetsebi-Lamptey was one of the 17 who contested the flag-bearer position of the NPP. In 2010 he stood successfully for election as a national chairman. His team produced the result that landed in the Supreme Court, where President John Dramani Mahama was declared elected. Today Jake is standing for re-election as national chairman to make sure that the NPP presidential candidate is elected President of Ghana with NPP majority in Parliament. Cross he carries He was recently cleared by the party hierachy of corrupt charges levelled against him by the MP for Assin Central, Mr Kennedy Agyapong. Will the delegates retain him by voting for him, as the congress draws near? NPP Congress The national executive elections are scheduled to be held on Saturday, April 12, in Tamale during the National Delegates Conference of the NPP.