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Sunday, July 18, 2010

NPP CONGRESS BLUES: THE BEGINNING OF AN INEVITABLE END?

There is no doubt that Monday s meeting between the National Council of Elders of the New Patriotic Party and all five candidates aspiring to lead the party as presidential candidate for election 2012 on Monday, July 19, 2010 is a mend or break moment for the NPP. A statement making a brave public face on the internal wranglings signed by NPP’s Communications Director, Kwaku Kwarteng, said the meeting will hold at the Party Headquarters, Asylum Down, Accra at 2.30 pm. What is not clear is the fact that even though this statement is at pains to mention a series of previous meetings all aimed at a resolution of these problems, form the statements of the aggrieved persons, the impression one gets is that these meetings have been complete failures.

i. an earlier meeting of the National Chairman, General Secretary and the aspirants in June 2010:

ii. a series of meetings between the Elections Committee and representatives of the aspirants since vetting was completed in June 2010:

iii. and a meeting of the Elections Committee and the aspirants themselves on the 5th July 2010:
 
Despite the spin, it is clear that the four presidential hopefuls, Prof. Kwabena Frempong-Boateng, Isaac Osei, John Kodua and Alan Kyerematen have lost confidence in the party s internal procedure for addressing grievances. Four of the five persons vying for the New Patriotic Party (NPP) presidential slot organized a joint-press conference on Wednesday, 15 July 2010, to air their grievances publicly. Political analysts are of the opinion that the very fact that these people were forced to come public is a sign that something is deeply amiss within the elephant family.  They had warned at the press conference that the electoral register that will be used for the party’s primaries on August 7, 2010 is not credible and so they will no longer co-operate with the party’s electoral committee.

The four complaining presidential hopefuls who held the joint press conference in Accra, slammed the electoral committee and the leadership of the party for what they described as “an electoral register in disarray.” Additionally, there are  reports that some party members are planning to seek a court injunction restraining the proposed congress from taking place as originally scheduled due to “unaddressed grievances in the road map to congress”. The aggrieved candidates in a press conference accused the national executives of presiding over irregularities which could tilt the election in favour of their competitor, Nana Akufo-Addo. The controversy aggravated, with Stephen Ntim, a failed National Chairman of the party and an ally to Alan Kyeremanten also wading into the controversy and accusing the national executives of plotting to rig the elections.

General Secretary of the Party Kwadwo Owusu Afriyie did not take kindly to the approach adopted by representatives of the four candidates and hinted of possible sanctions against them. A member of the New Patriotic Party Council of Elders Appenten Appiah Menkah also expressed shock at the ongoing media war between four presidential candidates on one hand and the national executives on the other. “I don't believe anything within the party should be in the public domain,” he told Joy News. A former General Secretary of the party, Dan Botwe was equally appalled with the decision of the four candidates to go to the press. He described as unacceptable the actions of the four, saying their grievances about voters register "is much ado about nothing".
 
Party Chairman Jake Obetsebi-Lamptey, would have none of the grievances of the four aspirants in a response, published by the DAILY GUIDE 
15-Jul-2010, he reaffirmed the official position that the NPP had an “absolute belief in the credibility of the voters’ register” and that the fine details of how the register was compiled had been well explained to all aspirants who understood the process. He was therefore surprised at the latest turn of events. A leading Member of Nana Akufo-Addo's Victory 2012 campaign Team, Mr. Boakye Agyarko has hit back at the four presidential aspirants for taking issues of the party to the public domain, instead of using the party structures to address their grievances. He described the 'modus operandi' used by the four aspirants as a 'childish' approach and appealed to the National Executive Committee (NEC) to treat it with magnanimous contempt. Mr. Boakye Agyarko, who contested the presidential primary of the party in 2007 said, he could not understand the posture and channels being used by the aspirants to seek a redress.

'I think that it is bad faith. We, the victory for 2012 campaign team would not do anything like that. We shall channel our grievances through the appropriate channels of the party. We believe that is the only way we can move forward as a party,' he said. In another development, the General Secretary of the party, Mr. John Owusu Afriyie, aka Sir John also said the press conference was not necessary because the issues the aspirants were speaking about were being addressed.

According to the General Secretary, upon receiving the letter of complaint, signed by the four peeved aspirants, the party invited them to a meeting to discuss the matter, but they could not wait and went ahead with the conference. He insisted that the voter register had already been validated and submitted to the Electoral Commission and that the complainants could have easily found out from the EC which they did not do. He was of the view that they should have picked the register and studied it before raising any concern, than wasting their breath to organize the press conference. On the concern of lack of communication between the aspirants and the party, Sir John disclosed that the party was always in touch with the aspirants or sometimes with their agents.

He declined to accept that the four aspirants were fighting Nana, saying 'they are fighting the process of the election'. MP for Asokwa and former Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly Chief Executive, Maxwell Kofi Jumah has said that some ‘fake’ members of the New Patriotic Party he calls Al-Qaeda are doctoring constituency registers of the party. Kofi Jumah, who was speaking on Asempa FM’s Ekosii Sen programme on Friday, said the act is “rampant” in the Eastern Region and believes the perpetrators intend to influence the outcome of the August 7 primary to elect a presidential candidate for the party. Contrary to criticisms that the action of the four – going public with their grievances – aimed at sowing seeds of discord in the party, Kofi Jumah said the four aspirants love the party, however they feel frustrated by machinations within the party that suggest they are being handed a raw deal.

He said those criticizing the four for going public with their grievances over alleged shortcomings in the party’s electoral register should also advocate for an open door policy in the party, explaining that the party needs to first desist from creating situations that will cause its members to voice publicly whatever misgivings they may have. He said for instance if complaints or petitions are dealt with expeditiously, there will be no need for any member of the party to go public with the same issues. But when they petition the party’s leadership and see no action, they should not be blamed for washing the party’s dirty linen in public.

Kofi Jumah said those Al-Qaeda NPP members have long set about their clandestine jobs and should be told in the face that the NPP abhors their nefarious activities rather than taking on those who dare to speak about the wrongs. He said had those being criticized used the occasion to commend some good deeds within the party, even if publicly, none would have come out to condemn them.


One of the candidates who contested the New Patriotic Party’s chairmanship slot, Stephen Ntim, has voiced out some concerns relating to how the party’s electoral committee handled the grievances of aspirants. Mr. Ntim who lost the Kumasi congress to Jake Obetsebi-Lamptey is convinced he was cheated. He described his painful experience on Asempa Fm’ Ekosii Sen programme on Thursday, citing how he was defeated due to the manner in which the electoral commission handled his petition. Mr. Ntim revealed that he has sent a petition of about three pages long to the party chairman Jake Obetsebi-Lamptey to investigate the alleged electoral malpractices that rocked the Kumasi congress.

He noted that his petition was snubbed by Jake. According to him not only did he wait for one and half months for a reply, but in the reply which he claimed was made up of only four lines indicated that the election committee would rather consider resolving the issues concerning the electoral irregularities and not necessarily investigating the matter. Mr. Ntim cited some incidents which he believed robbed him of his votes. He said he was not given a copy of the electoral register. Secondly, there were proxy votes of about five hundred which exceeded the accepted proxy votes of one hundred and eight. According to him there were eleven proxy votes against him alone. He also alleged that voters from TESCON were handpicked to vote against him.


There are Al-Qaedas in NPP – Maxwell Kofi Jumah,
Jake cheated me to win NPP chairmanship - Ntim

NPP Council of Elders call for ceasefire, Source: myjoyonline - Myjoyonline.com, Politics | 1 day ago

NPP Elders to meet Presidential Aspirants Monday


NPP Congress In Danger, Myjoyonline.com/Ghan, Date: 15-Jul-2010.

NPP For Court Over August 7 Congress, Date: 16-Jul-2010 
  
The frustrations of four NPP aspirants, Source: Ghanaian Chronicle Ghanaian Chronicle - Politics | 1 day ago



There are Al-Qaedas in NPP – Maxwell Kofi Jumah
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Maxwell Kofi Jumah, MP for Asokwa
Maxwell Kofi Jumah, MP for Asokwa
 

MP for Asokwa and former Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly Chief Executive, Maxwell Kofi Jumah has said that some ‘fake’ members of the New Patriotic Party he calls Al-Qaeda are doctoring constituency registers of the party.

Kofi Jumah, who was speaking on Asempa FM’s Ekosii Sen programme on Friday, said the act is “rampant” in the Eastern Region and believes the perpetrators intend to influence the outcome of the August 7 primary to elect a presidential candidate for the party.

Four of the five aspirants for the post last Wednesday jointly held a press conference to call for a cleaner register. The four - Prof Frimpong-Boateng, Dr Isaac Osei, Rev Kwame Koduah and Mr Alan Kyerematen in whose camp Kofi Jumah operates, were all officially represented except Nana Akufo-Addo.

Contrary to criticisms that the action of the four – going public with their grievances – aimed at sowing seeds of discord in the party, Kofi Jumah said the four aspirants love the party, however they feel frustrated by machinations within the party that suggest they are being handed a raw deal.

He said those criticizing the four for going public with their grievances over alleged shortcomings in the party’s electoral register should also advocate for an open door policy in the party, explaining that the party needs to first desist from creating situations that will cause its members to voice publicly whatever misgivings they may have. He said for instance if complaints or petitions are dealt with expeditiously, there will be no need for any member of the party to go public with the same issues. But when they petition the party’s leadership and see no action, they should not be blamed for washing the party’s dirty linen in public.

Kofi Jumah said those Al-Qaeda NPP members have long set about their clandestine jobs and should be told in the face that the NPP abhors their nefarious activities rather than taking on those who dare to speak about the wrongs.

He said had those being criticized used the occasion to commend some good deeds within the party, even if publicly, none would have come out to condemn them.


Story by Myjoyonline.com/Ghana



NPP Elders to meet Presidential Aspirants Monday




 

The National Council of Elders of the New Patriotic Party is to meet all five candidates aspiring to lead the party as presidential candidate for election 2012 on Monday, July 19, 2010.

Prof Frimpong-Boateng, Dr Isaac Osei, Rev Kwame Koduah, Mr Alan Kyerematen and Nana Akufo-Addo will vie for the slot at the party’s August 7, 2010 presidential primaries.

A statement signed by NPP’s Communications Director, Kwaku Kwarteng, said the meeting will hold at the Party Headquarters, Asylum Down, Accra at 2.30 pm.

“The National Council of Elders is chaired by Mr Clement Tedam. In attendance will be the members of the Elections Committee for the August 7 primaries.

“This meeting follows:
i. an earlier meeting of the National Chairman, General Secretary and the aspirants in June 2010;

ii. a series of meetings between the Elections Committee and representatives of the aspirants since vetting was completed in June 2010;

iii. and a meeting of the Elections Committee and the aspirants themselves on the 5th July 2010.

“The discussions at the Monday (19th July 2010) meeting will also be on the upcoming presidential primaries,” the statement said.



Myjoyonline.com/Ghana



NPP Congress In Danger
Date: 15-Jul-2010       
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Jake
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Four of the five persons vying for the New Patriotic Party (NPP) presidential slot say the electoral register that will be used for the party’s primaries on August 7, 2010 is not credible and so they will no longer co-operate with the party’s electoral committee.

DAILY GUIDE has also received reports that some party members are planning to seek a court injunction restraining the proposed congress from taking place as originally scheduled due to “unaddressed grievances in the road map to congress”.

Party Chairman Jake Obetsebi-Lamptey, in response, told DAILY GUIDE yesterday that the NPP had an “absolute belief in the credibility of the voters’ register” and that the fine details of how the register was compiled had been well explained to all aspirants who understood the process. He was therefore surprised at the latest turn of events.

The four complaining presidential hopefuls are Prof. Kwabena Frempong-Boateng, Isaac Osei, John Kodua and Alan Kyerematen, who yesterday held a joint press conference in Accra, during which their spokespersons slammed the electoral committee and the leadership of the party for what they described as “an electoral register in disarray.”

No reason was given why Nana Akufo Addo or his representative was not present at the press conference.

Speaking on behalf of Isaac Osei, Ken Amankwah, one of his associates, said the four aspirants had lost confidence in the electoral committee and thus they would no longer work with it or look up to it as an objective group of persons tasked to work towards a successful and credible congress.

Mr. Amankwa said the last straw that broke the camel’s back was a document currently in circulation purporting to be the rules and regulations agreed on for the August 7 primaries. “Two days ago, we saw this document and it has the rules and regulations but none of us has been given a copy and we were also not consulted, not even the four aspirants were consulted.

We cannot take this anymore and we would no longer work with the electoral committee,” Mr. Amankwah noted.

Yaw Boabeng Asamoah, who tried to save the situation, quickly grabbed the microphone and explained that Mr. Amankwah did not exactly mean that they were boycotting the electoral committee, but the latter insisted and repeated what he had said but said he would not explain to the journalists present where he saw the said document and who had it.

Felix Fonder addressed the conference on behalf of Prof. Frempong-Boateng and noted that though all parties had agreed to use a photo album for the voters’ register and give copies to all aspirants by June 2, this promise had not been fulfilled.

He said the first draft of the register was received on the 16th of June and was 85% complete, even though it had less than a 60% photo complement.“Moreover it was in a state of disarray with significant errors including same photos with different names, photos of women with men’s names and vice versa, as well as numerous gaps with no photos at all,” explained Mr. Fonder.

Mr. Obetsebi-Lamptey, when contacted, told DAILY GUIDE that the party’s voters’ register available to its headquarters was only a compilation of the registers that were received from the constituencies.

“We all agreed, together with the aspirants that we should use the same voters’ register that was used for the constituency elections and what has being compiled, scanned and sent to the aspirants; we are scanning because the photocopies were not very legible so we invested some money and started to scan what came from the constituencies.

“They themselves agreed that the compilation and scanning take time so rather than wait for the whole thing to be completed, we should rather let them have what has been scanned as and when they are ready until eventually, they will receive the whole thing.

“A few issues were raised with regard to those whose names appeared without photos and those who had wrong names but we have had several meetings and agreed on what should be done with each specific case,” Mr. Obetsebi-Lamptey added.

NPP notables that turned up for the news conference included former General Secretary Nana Ohene-Ntow and former chief executive of the Food and Drugs Board Emmanuel Agyarko.

Nana Prempeh, who represented Mr. Kodua at the news conference, virtually said nothing.
Source: D-Guide



NPP For Court Over August 7 Congress
Date: 16-Jul-2010       
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As at press time yesterday, there were credible indications that the impending August 7 Congress of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) might be postponed. The Congress is to elect the Party’s candidate for the 2012 presidential elections.

The postponement could be due to an injunction to be placed on the Party holding the Congress.One of the persons preparing to sue the Party said, “I am one of the fully-paid-up members who love this Party more than any individual or group of persons.

If the National Executives do not see reason to postpone the Congress to enable all issues to be resolved, we will definitely serve the writ on the NPP on Friday, July 23, 2010.”
Source: the Daily Dispatch
Source: Daily Dispatch




The frustrations of four NPP aspirants

Source: Ghanaian Chronicle - Ghanaian Chronicle
Politics | 1 day ago
    


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Nana Akufo-Addo
Nana Akufo-Addo
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Akufo-Addo's aide hits back
By Bismark Bebli &  Yussif Kewura
Nana Akufo-Addo
A leading Member of Nana Akufo-Addo's Victory 2012 campaign Team, Mr. Boakye Agyarko has hit back at the four presidential aspirants for taking issues of the party to the public domain, instead of using the party structures to address their grievances.

He described the 'modus operandi' used by the four aspirants as a 'childish' approach and appealed to the National Executive Committee (NEC) to treat it with magnanimous contempt.

According to him, it was unfortunate that when the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) is currently in turmoil and Ghanaians are crying for the return of the NPP to redeem them, the four aspirants would resort to unorthodox means of seeking redress with an attempt to disregard the party structures.

'It is a show of bad faith to disrespect the party structure and the constitution. We did not resort to press conferences when seventeen of us were vying for the presidential slot. If we had done that the party would have collapsed by now,' he said.

'A this juncture, I will ignore it with contempt. What are they seeking for? Now that the NDC is in turmoil, it is incumbent on us to hold ourselves together because Ghanaians are looking up to us and I will suggest that the party ignore it and treat it with magnanimous contempt and forge ahead.

You don't need to punish them. This is because any attempt to punish them would bring some sort of confusion and the NDC would laugh at us because that is what they want,' he claimed.

Speaking in an interview with this paper, Mr. Boayke Agyarko dismissed claims that Nana Akufo-Addo was aware of the planned press conference but did not delegate any of his representatives to attend.

He said despite the fact that the actions of the four presidential aspirants were irritating, the party should remain focused and work towards a successful congress.

He was, however, shocked about the actions of the four aspirants, saying that they have met ten days ago and the issues of the irregularities were brought onto the table, and it was discussed to the satisfaction of all.

The four NPP presidential hopefuls, Mr. Alan John Kwadwo Kyerematen,                 Prof. Frimpong Kwabena-Boateng, Hon. Isaac Osei and Apostle John K. Kodua, through their representatives expressed disquiet about what they described as 'seeming lack of clarity in constituting an acceptable register for the conduct of the presidential primaries.'

To the worried and concerned aspirants, the digital register been adopted by the leadership of the party was in a state of disarray, with significant errors, stressing further that any attempt by the  election committee to go ahead with the unfinished digital register would create anarchy, confusion and above all disenfranchise potential delegates.

'In all fairness, we must acknowledge the major efforts the party had embarked on to consolidate the various constituency albums into one digital register. With hindsight however, perhaps that laudable process ought not to have been done as part of this particular primary, given the time constraints.

'This is because the first draft of the digital register received on the 16th June 2010 at 80% completion had less than a 60% photo complement.

Moreover, it was in a state of disarray with significant errors including some photos with different names, photos of women with men's names and vice versa, as well as numerous gaps with no photos at all.'

But Mr. Boakye Agyarko, who contested the presidential primary of the party in 2007 said, he could not understand the posture and channels being used by the aspirants to seek a redress.

'I think that it is bad faith. We, the victory for 2012 campaign team would not do anything like that. We shall channel our grievances through the appropriate channels of the party. We believe that is the only way we can move forward as a party,' he said.

The General Secretary of the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) Mr. John Owusu Afriyie, aka Sir John has also commented on the press conference held by the representatives of the four presidential aspirants of the party.

Speaking in an interview with The Chronicle in Accra yesterday, Sir John said the press conference was not necessary because the issues the aspirants were speaking about were being addressed.

According to the General Secretary, upon receiving the letter of complaint, signed by the four peeved aspirants, the party invited them to a meeting to discuss the matter, but they could not wait and went ahead with the conference.

He revealed that the voter register had already been validated and submitted to the Electoral Commission and that the complainants could have easily found out from the EC which they did not do.

He was of the view that they should have picked the register and studied it before raising any concern, than wasting their breath to organize the press conference.

On the concern of lack of communication between the aspirants and the party, Sir John disclosed that the party was always in touch with the aspirants or sometimes with their agents.

He declined to accept that the four aspirants were fighting Nana, saying 'they are fighting the process of the election'.

NPP Council of Elders call for ceasefire

Source: myjoyonline - Myjoyonline.com
Politics | 1 day ago
    


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Appenten Appiah Menka
Appenten Appiah Menka
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A member of the New Patriotic Party Council of Elders Appenten Appiah Menkah has expressed shock at the ongoing media war between four presidential candidates on one hand and the national executives on the other.

The aggrieved candidates in a press conference accused the national executives of presiding over irregularities which could tilt the election in favour of their competitor, Nana Akufo-Addo.

General Secretary of the Party Kwadwo Owusu Afriyie did not take kindly to the approach adopted by representatives of the four candidates and hinted of possible sanctions against them.

The controversy aggravated, with Stephen Ntim, a failed National Chairman of the party and an ally to Alan Kyeremanten also wading into the controversy and accusing the national executives of plotting to rig the elections.

But Mr Appiah Menka is unimpressed with the procedures the four have adopted in having their grievances resolved.

“I don't believe anything within the party should be in the public domain,” he told Joy News.

“If you go to the press can the public solve the problem for you?" He quizzed.

He said the party has rules and regulations governing it and chided the four for not consulting the council before going public with their grievances.

The council has subsequently summoned all the five candidates for a meeting on Monday, 19th July, 2010 to thrash out their differences.

A former General Secretary of the party, Dan Botwe was equally appalled with the decision of the four candidates to go to the press.

He described as unacceptable the actions of the four, saying their grievances about voters register "is much ado about nothing".

Story by Nathan Gadugah/Myjoyonline.com/Ghana

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