Politics of Monday, 30 December 2013

Source: Daily Guide

Mahmood enters NPP Race

Mahmood Mahama, a New Patriotic Party (NPP) stalwart of the Upper East Region has declared his intention to contest as National Organizer of the party in the impending party elections.

He said he has decided to enter the fray because the NPP is losing grounds at the grassroots level in spite of the good policies and programmes that the party sells to the electorate.

He told DAILY GUIDE exclusively that he would work hard to bring back the party to power like it happened in 2000 and repeated in 2004 if given the nod.

“Before I became Regional Organizer of our great party, the Upper East was virtually a no go area for the NPP and the votes were not coming but with the help of my colleagues, I was able to institute programmes that ensured that we made the NPP attractive to the electorate.”

He said, “I made sure I visited every polling station in the region selling the good policies of our party and that effort paid off for the NPP. I promise the delegates that I am going to arrange for it to be done once again for the party to remain strong at the grassroots.”

Mr. Mahama also said that he was ready to lead a team that would tap the expertise of all past organizers and even those who once contested for the position so that together they could introduce viable programmes to recapture power from the National Democratic Congress (NDC) in 2016.

“I decided not to announce on time, my entry into the race, because I needed to consult the grassroots and the favourable response I received has encouraged me to forge ahead.”

He said the NPP has “viable policies” for Ghana’s accelerated development but the organizational mechanisms and strategies needed to get the policies to the electorate were still untapped.

“Our communication team members are doing their best but we need to do more on the organizational aspects of our affairs and I have offered myself for that course.”

Mr. Mahama called for a clean campaign and urged all party members to respect the party’s constitution and go through the internal exercise without any hitch for the party to stand united.

He served as NPP Upper East Regional Organizer for 12 years (1996/97 – 2009) and until recently was the Coordinator for Nana Akufo-Addo in the Northern part of Ghana.

He was also the Deputy Director of Operations for the Nana Akufo-Addo 2012 Campaign.