General News of Monday, 22 February 2016

Source: tv3network.com

NDP moves to unite with NDC but...

Leader of the NDP, Nana Konadu Agyemang Rawlings Leader of the NDP, Nana Konadu Agyemang Rawlings

The National Democratic Party appears disappointed after the governing National Democratic Congress apparently disregarded a letter to them asking for a coalition party.

In the middle of 2015, the NDP had made overture to the party it broke away from barely four years ago calling for partnership as Ghana goes to the polls in November this year, Chairman of National Democratic Party, Josiah Aryeh revealed.

The party formally wrote to the NDC as was officially requested by the latter, the chairman who is a law lecturer told tv3network.com on Monday.

“We said we were open to meet with them and to have broad discussions with them…to meet with the NDC, the presidency or whatsoever to see if we can have any movement forward,” he said.

However after months of deafening silence and apparent snub from the NDC, Josiah Aryeh has accepted that going into the 2016 elections with a united front is a “far cry”.

The NDP deserted the NDC in the run up to the December 2012 elections after what is believed to be leadership strife.

Reuniting, Dr. Aryeh noted, would hinge on “a series of meetings then you can be able to move slightly closer and be talking about things like that or even going to an election with one candidate that I think is too far off.”

Asked if the party would have really wished for a partnership, he answered rather coyly, “that is why we wrote to them in the first place to see whether there can be any productive discussion regarding those things”.

However after months of waiting expectantly, “it doesn’t look like the NDC is interested”, Josiah Aryeh resigned to fate.

Meanwhile, the National Democratic Party is yet to elect its flagbearer for the 2016 elections expected to be held on November 7.

He however discounted that the primary has delayed because of the partnership they were hoping to reach with the NDC.