Bolgatanga, July 25 GNA - Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Regional Integration and New Partnership For Africa's Development, on Monday declared his intention to contest the position of flagbearer for the New Patriotic Party (NPP) in the 2008 Presidential Election.

Mr Carlos Von Brazi, Director of Research and Operations at the Friends of Nana Akufo-Addo Institute (FONAI), made the announcement in Bolgatanga on behalf of the Foreign Affairs Minister, who completed a three-day tour of all the 13 constituencies of the Upper East.

Mr Von Brazi told newsmen that Nana Akufo-Addo had received an urgent call to proceed to Accra for a pressing national assignment, hence his inability to spill the beans personally as earlier arranged. Mr Von Brazi explained that the purpose of the tour was to afford the Foreign Affairs Minister the opportunity to meet Regional and constituency executives of the NPP in the Upper East to make his intention known to them and to solicit their support.
In the course of the tour, Nana Akufo-Addo and his team were also able to assess the strengths and weaknesses of the Party in the Region. "The prospects are bright because from zero to one seat in 1996 and now we have two seats in the Upper East. That is progress, and I can assure that the Party is taking all the seats in the Region come 2008," the Operations Director declared.
He indicated that the information gathered during the tour would be passed on to the Research Unit at the NPP Headquarters in Accra to enable the Unit to work out strategies that would make the Party in the Upper East "a sharp cutlass that can cut deep."
Mr Von Brazi stated that throughout the tour, Party executives in the constituencies were delighted at the fact that Nana Akufo-Addo had taken the initiative to come down to their communities to ascertain the state of affairs of the Party at the grassroots.
They also assured him of their unflinching support in his bid to assume the position of flagbearer when the Party goes to congress in December 2007.