Koforidua, July 15, GNA - The National Chairman of the New Patriotic Party, Mr. Peter Mac Manu has called on members of the party to desist from the use of confrontation and the media in settling disputes among them.

He advised constituency executives that do not have Council of Elders to establish one for resolving disputes among party members. Mr. Mac Manu explained that often the members of the Council of Elders have the capacity, by experience to sense certain issues that could degenerate into major conflicts and resolve them before they threaten the unity of the party at the constituency level. He made the call at the formal opening of a three-day strategic workshop of the party for constituency executives in the Eastern Region at Koforidua on Saturday.

The workshop, code named; "Operation 2008 Strategic Workshop" is the third in a series being organized by the leadership of the party for members throughout the country under a broader theme: "Consolidating Our Gains".

Mr. Mac Manu observed that the performance of the government from the 1996 election to date indicated that NPP is a dynamic and growing party and therefore called on the leadership of the party in Region to consolidate the 22 seats that it won at the 2004 elections and work hard to win over those seats that it lost. He said, "this is the only way to consolidate our gains and ensure that NPP succeeds itself".

Nana Ohene Ntow General Secretary of the party said the national leadership of the party was taking the strategic meeting very serious. He said the NPP as a "moving party" that has won two elections and would win the 2008 election massively in the first round. Mr. Ohene Ntow explained that intelligence report that the party had received indicated that the main opponents, the National Democratic Congress (NDC) would raise a lot of issues to cause problems if the party failed to win the first round.

He gave the assurance that the party was monitoring the report and further explained that it was confident of victory in the 2008 election because of the "fantastic performance of the NPP government in power" and mentioned a lot of economic and social programmes that the government has initiated to support his argument. He observed that the whole country would have been in darkness if the current energy crisis facing the country had happened under an NDC government.

Nana Ohene Ntow said the party was reorganizing and re-strategizing on its publicity campaign to attack the "campaign of lies" peddled by its opponent and ensure that the electorate are told the truth. He appealed to the media to deliver the facts to the people the way they were.

In an introductory remark the National Organizer of the party, Mr Lord Oblitey Commey said the workshop would reveal the projection made by each of the branches of the party in every constituency of the Region towards the 2004 election and make new projections. He said the party would not underrate the sensitivity of Ghanaians and the strength of the opposition.

In a welcoming address, the Eastern Regional Chairman of the Party, Mr Yaw Amoabeng observed that despite the remarkable achievements of the party in government from the past seven years, there was the need to work harder to consolidate the gains of the party. He advised the constituency executive of the party to avoid issues that could divide their ranks. 15 July 07