An aspiring presidential candidate of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Dr Kwesi Botchwey has denied receiving ten vehicles from the National Chairman of the party, Dr Obed Asamoah, for his campaign.

He also denied ceasing to be a member of the party when he left the country for the United States. Dr Botchwey was answering questions when he met delegates of the NDC from the 15 districts in the Eastern Region, at Koforidua to solicit their support to be the presidential candidate of the party at a Congress scheduled for December, this year. He said he has offered himself to be the flag bearer out of a "patriotic desire to serve the party and the country and not to destroy the NDC".

Dr Botchwey claimed he was earning almost 90 million cedis a month from his job in the USA, saying, "if I were selfish, I would just stand by and enjoy my earnings, acquire some property for myself and continue to travel in and out of the country at will and nobody could subject me to any questions".

He said if he becomes the flag bearer of the NDC for 2004, he would set up structures for the resolution of conflicts within the party and come out with programmes for the youth and women. Dr Botchwey promised to establish a Department within the party for those who would offer themselves to serve the NDC to take advantage to improve their economic well-being.

He said he would also put in place measures to win back all those who left the party because of complaints against the non-existence of internal democracy in the NDC.

The National Organiser of the NDC, Mr. Samuel Ofosu-Ampofo said the December NDC Congress would not produce any loser because the party needs "a pool of good leadership materials like Professor John Evans Atta Mills and Dr Kwesi Botchwey" it can fall on when the need arises. He said if the recent Kumawu bye-election is a reflection of what would happen in the 2004 elections, then the NDC needed "a very tough presidential candidate".

Mr. Ampofo alleged that even though the New Patriotic Party (NPP) claimed the constituency to be one of its strongholds, it campaigned with heavily armed military and police personnel with armoured vehicles. He claimed that some members of the NDC were beaten and arrested, saying, "it got to a stage one of the national executives of the NPP threatened to mobilise their supporters for a free for all fight with NDC supporters and I had to intervene to cool tempers".