Cape Coast, Aug 22, GNA- Papa Owusu Ankomah, a presidential aspirant of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), on Wednesday said the contest for the flag bearer of the party must be one of ideas and not of personality.

He said it should be the contest of what the aspirant stood for, believes in and vision for the future and not how old, rich, brilliant or how long he has been in the political terrain. Papa Owusu Ankomah made this remark when he interacted with the press at the end of his four-day tour of the Central Region to brief them on the success of his trip to the area.

The tour took the aspirant to all the nineteen constituencies where he met their executives as well as the regional executive of the party.

He stated " I am the most strategic, marketable candidate and therefore the best for the NPP into the future from foundation to transformation."

The aspirant said the contest is about taking Ghana into the future with new ideas grounded in "our values and traditions as people," stressing that the flag bearer must be someone with a vision to transform and to re-discover the values and philosophical tradition that distinguished the party from the others.

Papa Ankomah said he has detected from his rounds that the rank and file of the NPP were warming up to his visions and that the greatest challenge for him now was to have time to share his visions with the people.

According to him, whoever succeeds President Kufuor, who has laid the foundation of good governance, macro-economic stability must also be able to improve on the country's Gross Domestic Product (GDP). He said the person must be able to make Ghana more globally competitive and ensure that every young person in the country irrespective of where he or she is located, could realize their full potential without thinking of migrating to another country. Papa Ankomah said with his exposure in terms of the portfolios he has held, he was better qualified to lead the party and become the president.

The aspirant said he has held positions in the three arms of government, being the Deputy Majority Leader, Majority Leader, Minister of Youth and Sports, Minister of Parliamentary Affairs, Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Minister for the Interior and not quite long Minister of Education Science and Sports.

He urged the people of the region to vote for him to lead the party to victory in the 2008 elections, because he is the only candidate who could attract more votes from Greater Accra, Central, Western and Brong-Ahafo Regions, which he described "swing regions" because no party has a stronghold in those regions.