Accra, Sept. 25, GNA - An independent parliamentary candidate in the December poll on Thursday said voting for independent candidates was the surest way to reduce the culture of partisan politics. Mr John Kabutey Tettegah, independent candidate for Ablekuma South, told the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in Accra that it was only independent candidates who could enrich political debates without being seen as partisan.

Mr Tettegah, a founding member of the Platform for Independent National Alternatives (PINA), said PINA was a foundation set up with the primary responsibility of promoting and sponsoring independent parliamentary candidates as a means of diffusing tension resulting from partisan politics and the concentration of power in the executive and its dominating majority in Parliament. He said even if the leading parties shared the Executive and Parliament, the culture of partisan politics would make it difficult to improve governance.

Mr Tettegah said his resolve to contest the Ablekuma South seat as an independent candidate was "to jump into the trenches with the other PINA parliamentary candidates", in order to demonstrate PINA's strategy to wrest power from the leading political parties. Mr Tettegah, son of Mr John K Tettegah, a veteran trade unionist, said his philosophy in life was based on "high thinking, simple living and selfless service".

He said their campaign was to urge the electorate to vote into power independent candidates as the way of improving the role of Parliament in the governance of Ghana.

The independent candidate who, refers to himself as a "progressive", stated that in his view, the country's political spectrum was made up of conservatives, liberals, progressives. Mr Tettegah said the progressive platform was the broad majority of Ghanaians who would want nothing less than a total transformation of the country.

He said what Ghana needed was the progressive leadership that would articulate, demonstrate and implement this transformation for all because the time of conformity (conservatives), and reform (liberals) was over.

Mr Tettegah said in taking this political stance to contest as an independent candidate, he abdicated five years ago as a chief of Benim in Asante Mampong during which time he had the opportunity to face at first hand the frustration of traditional institutions to make an impact on the development of their communities.

"I believe that the local government system requires a comprehensive transformation, one that will consider the inclusion, mobilization, regulation and motivation of all participants in its administration, that is, chiefs, assemblymen and unit committee members," he said.