Politics of Wednesday, 19 September 2007

Source: Kojo Allotey Jacobs, Elmina

KEEA NDC Chooses Dr. Annan

The Komenda-Edna-Eguafo-Abrem Constituency branch of the Central Regional NDC last Saturday endorsed Dr. J. A. Annan to become the party’s parliamentary candidate for the 2008 general elections.

Dr. Annan was endorsed at the constituency delegates conference to elect a Parliamentary Candidate, when the other contestant, Mr. David Honarius Mensah, voluntarily stepped down.

Mr. Honarius Mensah, in stepping down, noted that even though he is supremely qualified and competent to win the seat for the NDC, he is happy to step down for Dr. Annan, and promised to work with the candidate to recapture the seat for the NDC.

Crystal Vision in Elmina, the venue for the conference, was packed to capacity, with hundreds of party sympathizers and activists dancing to brass band and ‘kolomashie’ music.

Addressing the conference, a Deputy General Secretary of the NDC, Baba Jamal, reiterate an earlier statement he had made that the National Democratic Congress will use all legal means to resist any attempt by the NPP to rig the 2008 elections.

He pointed out that in 2000 when the NPP won the elections the then President and founder of the NDC peacefully handed over the administration of government to Mr. J. A. Kufour, and “ever since, the NDC has played its role as a major party in opposition without posing any threat to our democracy.”

Mr. Baba Jamal stressed that there is no way the NDC is going to lose the 2008 elections, and predicted that the NDC would make nonsense of polls or predictions that forecast that the party would be vanquished.

“The writing is clear on the wall; Prof Mills and the NDC are cruising to victory. But, first, there is hard work to be done if our cruise to victory should not be derailed from our intended trajectory. That is why none of us should feel complacent, but we must work even harder to ensure that victory in 2008 is complete and conclusive,” Baba Jamal advised.

He extolled the virtues of Prof John Evans Atta Mills, the NDC Presidential Candidate and the next President of the Republic of Ghana, and said that, “the NDC has a flagbearer who is not tainted by corruption neither can any one pinpoint an act which is contrary to his nature of being humble and God fearing.”

Baba Jamal advised the polling agents of the party to be very vigilant firm and strong during voting day and should not allow themselves to be influenced with money for that is what the NPP does best to rig elections. The National Women Organizer Madam Ama Benyiwa Doe, on her part, called on the membership of the party not to think that by endorsing Dr. J.S Annan, that is the end of the task.

She urged members to work hard for Dr Annan and the Party by going from house to house, room to room and persons to person to market him in order for voters to understand why Dr Annan and Atta Mills should be voted for in the 2008 elections.

Madam Benyiwa Doe said that, the man that the KEEA party has chosen has a track record and that Dr Annan was part of District Response Programme started by the PNDC/NDC when the local government concept was being introduced as part of the decentralization of political decisions-making, “he is therefore an experience person and an expert in various fields of endeavour, from which the constituency will greatly benefit,” Auntie Ama enthused.

She assured the delegates that, the Ashanti Region which the NPP prides itself on as a ‘no go area’ for the NDC, will turn the scales in favour of the NDC. She predicted that the NDC is sure to have forty percent of the total vote that cast in that region.

She advise all party members to be wary of the deceit and lies being churn by the NPP and should go all out to let Ghanaians know the truth in order for them to vote the NPP out of power.

The occasion saw in attendance Party executives from National, Regional and some ward executives. From KEEA