Cape Coast, March 1, GNA - Mr Kwamena Duncan, Central Regional Secretary of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), pledged the party's commitmen= t to remain fair, equitable, firm and transparent with all elected parliamentary aspirants.

He said the party was therefore closely monitoring all constituencies and would quash any form of favoritism on the part of the executives toward= s any candidate and stressed that such acts would not be tolerated by the party. In an interview with the Ghana News Agency on Tuesday, Mr Duncan expressed the hope that the process would go on smoothly and successfully for the NPP to recapture power in the 2012 general election. The party's parliamentary primaries had been scheduled for Saturday, April 30, consequently the filing of nominations will remain open till Sunday, March 6, while candidates have up to Friday, March 18, to submit their completed forms to the Regional Secretariat. Nominations opened on Monday and although Mr Duncan could not state th= e exact number of people who had bought the nomination forms, he said aspirants were purchasing the forms at the cost of GH¢1,000 for male aspirants and GH¢500 for female aspirants.

Mr Duncan said that after submitting the forms, the candidates were to go through vetting between March 26 and 29 after which the results will be published to help eligible voters know their candidates better. He noted that winning of parliamentary seats in the various constituencies was more critical than pursuing the presidential seat. This was because when more seats are won by the party in the parliamentary election, it will automatically draw the party closer to the presidential seat. Mr Duncan said the party's defeat in the 2008 general election was d= ue to the fact that it failed to pay attention to its parliamentary primaries.