Ho (Volta Region) -- Dr Kwesi Botchwey, a contender in the race for the National Democratic Congress (NDC) Presidential slot for the 2004 elections, has expressed reservations about publications in the bi-weekly "Ghana Palaver" and said the paper "seeks to scandalise and trivialise some issues related to my campaign."

Speaking to delegates of the party from the Volta Region at Ho on the last leg of his tour of the country, he alleged that the paper, in one of such publications, stated that some NPP parliamentarians were among the crowd that met him when he arrived back to Ghana from the US to begin his campaign.

Dr Botchwey said the Ghana Palaver even criticised his financial contribution to re-invigorate the party machinery at the time that "some of the offices did not have even envelopes."

Referring to computations of his expenditure on the party published by the paper, Dr Botchwey wondered why it was "pre-occupied with my arithmetic" when Professor Evans Atta Mills, his opponent was also "rightly too, spending".

He said his financial support for the party everywhere he went, had been open and did not contravene any law pledging that he would continue to do that if he had the means. Dr Botchwey said the publications did not bother him and that what mattered "is what I can do, what Professor Mills can do in the service of the Party."

He said people who were upset by the open nature of the campaign for the Presidential candidature of the Party had resorted to mudslinging even though they claimed they were democrats.

Answering questions at a press conference later, Dr Botchwey said as a Social Democrat, he did not subscribe to any political philosophy that did not support press pluralism and press freedom. He acknowledged that in the past his party did not nurture a relationship with the press "too well" and said that would change.

Dr Botchwey said the party structures had been dormant and should be activated to inspire confidence in supporters "many of who still had faith in it."

Regarding the NDC's support base in the Volta region, Dr Botchwey said the "World Bank" could not be reduced to a "Rural Bank" as the party's opponents would want to believe. "The welcome accorded me at Ho is a solid demonstration that the people still love the party."

Modestus Ahiable, NDC Volta Region Chairman, said speculations about the NPP making in-roads into the region as far as the NDC was concerned were not true and that it remained the "World Bank" of the party.