General News of Thursday, 14 June 2001

Source: GC

Four parties to unify activities

Four political parties have agreed to explore further avenues of political co-operation in their activities throughout the 200 constituencies in the country.

The parties are the Convention People’s Party (CPP), People’s National Convention (PNC), National Reform Party (NRP), and the Great Consolidated Popular Party (GCPP). This was the outcome of a meeting held in Accra under the auspices of the CPP.

At the end of the meeting the representatives of the parties signed a joint statement calling for further consultation in order to consolidate their fronts and unite their ranks to contest and win the next general elections. A source at the meeting said in an interview that the discussions were characterised by frank , dispassionate and constructive engagements by the representatives.

According to the source, the representatives expressed their dissatisfaction about the fragmentation on their fronts, which they claimed contributed immensely to their dismal performances in the last presidential and parliamentary elections.

“It dawned on us that unless we pursue political co-operation in our activities , there is no way any of the party gathered here could win elections in the foreseeable future,” the source said.

The source said no pre-conditions were set by the representatives for such co-operation, since previous attempts which had trappings of so many conditionalities ended on the rocks. It said the representatives unanimously agreed that regular meetings should be held to work out a framework which would form the basis for the co-operation.