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The Editor of the Insight newspaper, Kwesi Pratt Jnr, has described as �most unfortunate�, the decision of the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) to set up prayer teams to seek for God�s assistance in a bid to win the 2012 general elections. In a bid to wrestle power from the National Democratic Congress (NDC), the NPP has directed all of its branches across the country to set up prayer groups, both Christian and Muslim, by August 20 to seek divine intervention for a return to power in 2013. The General Secretary of NPP, Kwadwo Owusu Afriyie, popularly known as Sir John, said both the Bible and the Quran admonished the faithful to trust in the Lord, especially when they faced a battle, and it was therefore only natural that the main opposition party �seeks the face of the Lord� in the crucial 2012 electoral battle. However, speaking to Shamima Muslim, host of the Citi Eyewitness News on Thursday August 11, Mr. Kwesi Pratt said Ghana is a democratic, secular state and it is wrong for any political party in the country to impose religion on its party members. According to Kwesi Pratt, national politics must be free of religion and people who belong to political parties must be allowed to belong to whichever religion they love. �If that becomes an aspect of the 2012 elections I will consider that most unfortunate, most unfortunate to the extent that we must develop a democratic culture, our politicians are all telling us that we ought to respect the Constitution. The 1992 Constitution makes it very clear that Ghana is a democratic secular republic. �There are many things that we ought to do ourselves; we are not going to wait for God to build your National Gas structure, you are not waiting for God to dig boreholes in the rural communities that you have not accessed for potable water. Those are things we expect our leaders to do with the tax money that they collect. �I believe that whatever God anybody worships that is his private life and nobody has the right to intervene. If you believe in Tigare that is your belief; why impose Tigare on the rest of the nation? Why must you impose Christianity, Islam or bahai on the rest of the nation? �The state and national politics must be free of religion, it is absolutely important.� Mr Pratt also noted that prayers at work places before work begins must be abolished and people allowed to express their religious beliefs in their own way.