The race for the New Patriotic Party' flagbearership moved to another level last Saturday, September 22, 2007 with the opening of nominations and sale of forms to aspirants.

The opening of nominations marks the official launch of activities of the ruling party towards electing a presidential candidate, who would lead it to seek the people's mandate to succeed itself, with the exit of President John Agyekum Kufuor on January 7, 2009.

What this means is that from now on, whatever activities the various aspirants engage in, would be deemed to be under the ambit of the party. Anything said or conduct exhibited, whether positive or negative would directly impact on the party as a whole.

The party has already spelt out the behaviour required of aspirants during this period, in its code of conduct and guidelines given to the aspirants at the time they picked up nomination forms. And it is our hope that members of the party would hold candidates, their campaign teams, and supporters in check, to demonstrate the highest form of civility, as the position of the highest office of the land, to which they seek to contest requires.

Already, some elements, whether supporters of some aspirants, their cronies, or whatever, hiding behind the anonymity of text messaging, have resorted to activities aimed at denigrating other aspirants in a manner that brings the name of the NPP into disrepute. But that was before the opening of nominations, when the party officially had no aspirants to contend with.

Now that the battle lines have been drawn, it is the hope of The Statesman that those aspirants, whose 'men? have broken loose and been engaged in these crude methods of seeking favour for their candidates, would bring order into their own ?households? as a demonstration of their potential capacity to hold together the bigger NPP family.

What all aspirants and their supporters ought to recognise, at this stage, is that any rifts that any untoward conduct would bring to the party would have the potential of slowing efforts at appealing to the electorate in the wider political field.

Another danger that the party is being plunged into, is, an attempt to, as reports have it, sway potential delegates with money. This danger, was well made by one of the leading aspirants of the party, Nana Akufo-Addo, when he met party members in the Ashanti Regional capital, Kumasi over the weekend, where he advised them not to allow those involved in the attempt to ?buy? their votes, to insult their intelligence.

The party chairman, Peter Mac Manu, expressing his abhorrence at the situation, has been reported to have cautioned potential delegates not to engage in swearing before shrines to pledge their support to aspirants who provide them with financial baits.

The NPP tradition is well-known for its resilience, based on a belief in participatory democracy, demonstrated by the commitment of hundreds of thousands of foot-soldiers who have not sought financial rewards for their efforts, but continue to travail, in the hope that it is this tradition that can create the environment for their aspirations to be met. Any attempt, therefore, by any candidate, to resort to vote-buying is likely to be punished by these teeming foot-soldiers and others, whose support for the party is based on the democratic credentials it professes. The allegation of ?money-swine politics? being leveled against the NPP has the potential of haunting the party if it is not decisively dealt with. For instance, the millions of Ghanaians, who have over the years been voting for the party, based on its goodwill, would not want to do that for free anymore, if they perceive that money had played a significant role in the run-up to the party?s December Congress, even if the culprits did not win.

Also, any falsities, put out by aspirants and/or their supporters, aimed at running down opponents to gain electoral mileage at the party level, would tend to become a cross for the whole party to bear, if one of the targets of such dirty campaigns eventually turn out to be the winner.

Our advice to all aspirants, therefore, is to rein in any of their ?men? who might have broken loose, and been engaging in conduct that would eventually impact negatively on the fortunes of a tradition that has been built on the blood and sweat of many unsung heroes.

We implore aspirants to conduct issue-based campaigns, and let the electorate know what programmes they have to address the myriad of problems that confront Ghana and Ghanaians for that matter.