Nana Konadu Agyemang Rawlings flagbearer of the National Democratic Party (NDP), has revealed she could not stand the alarming corruption within her former party the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) hence her decision to join a new party.

The former first lady told the BBC: “The reason why I went into the contest [NDC Sunyani congress] is to do what I am doing with the NDP today. That is why I went into the contest because it was pretty obvious and clear that the corruption and mismanagement was becoming like business as usual.”

The former First Lady and wife of the founder of the NDC contested the flagbearership of the party with the late President John Mills, but lost the bid to lead the party into the 2012 general elections.

She later alleged that President Mills' men rigged the party’s elections claiming that the process was riddled with electoral malpractices that saw thousands of people who were not delegates voting.

Mrs Rawlings said “we had a situation where politics was more important than the people themselves so people of like minded ideas decided that let’s look at how we can improve on the quality of life of the people of Ghana.”

She denied the widely held perception that she opted to lead the NDP to nurse her wounds following her defeat at the NDC’s Sunyani congress.

The leader of the 31st December Women’s Movement stated that she was committed to putting an end to the ongoing corruption and the neglect of the basic needs of Ghanaians. She said: “If we don’t stop it, we are going to get to a point where it gets worse and worse until the country collapses.”