There is an unsettling development in the New Patriotic Party as the party heads towards December to elect its next presidential candidate. The questions that keep the NPP leadership and rank and file awake at night are: Who will President Kufuor support? Are the stories we are hearing true that all is being providentially done in marshalling resources to ensure the victory of one particular candidate? If the President is indeed neutral then why is he seemingly unconcerned about his name being used to command obedience and allegiance for a particular candidate?

Ever-echoing hints The Statesman is picking up point to a sense of collective resentment in almost all the competing camps against what many see as a repeat of the Mac Manu vrs Ntim [2005] contest. If, as the lawyers say, it was case law, Mac Manu vrs Ntim [2005] would be the legal authority on how not to overstretch your presidential hand.

Except this time, the stakes are much higher and the direct contesting interests a lot more than in the December 2005 race for the ruling party's chairmanship.

About 18 people are contesting the NPP flagbearership. In that Mac Manu vrs Ntim [2005] contest, President John Agyekum Kufuor jumped into the ring of combat in an attempt to sway the majority of some 1,350 delegates away from the more familiar party servant, Peter Mac Manu to elect Stephen Ayensu Ntim, the younger, richer, 'sexier" contestant.

Though in the last few years to the 2005 party chairmanship contest, Stephen Ntim showed far superior amounts of fiscal generosity, while running an impressively sophisticated campaign, the party’s enduring institutional memory probably did it for his competitor.

At the end of the two-man race, the NPP Western Regional Chairman, Mr Mac Manu beat the NPP First National Chairman by 711 votes to 635 votes. Could a seasoned politician like President Kufuor be so foolhardy and injudicious to have another go at an adventure which is even much riskier now than what got his fingers quite badly burnt in 2005?

Unlike, 2005, he is not likely to be able to hold the threat of dismissal against any of those who are bound to resist it. With the understandable exception of the Vice President, all the other aspirants are now being let loose to campaign on their own steam and resources, free of the perks and airs of office.

Yet, there is a growing fear that the grounds will not be even after this month’s involuntary mass resignation from office of all eight minister-aspirants. The concern today is even worse than that widely publicised in the days leading to the National Delegates’ Congress in 2005 to elect party national executives.

Presidential aspirants and their supporters, across the country, are getting increasingly agitated that the establishment may be mobilised to favour one candidate to the detriment of all the others. Though this has been denied but by some Castle sources, The Statesman continues to receive ever-growing evidence, both anecdotal and highly persuasive, supporting the allegation that the President does not intend to act admissibly neutral in the internal party contest to choose his successor.

People are even watching with keen interest the make up of the President’s next Cabinet and also which District Chief Executives may be replaced in coming days for clues of the President’s alleged masterful hand in the flagbearership contest.

In his keynote address at the NPP congress of December 17, 2005, President Kufuor urged party delegates to vote wisely to elect "hard-working men and women of distinction and integrity." He also assured the party at the time that he would be comfortable with whoever the delegates chose as national executive officers.

After the speech, the President left the Legon grounds of the congress before voting began. Though ostensibly, his exit was to avoid any impression of influencing the outcome of the elections, the subsequent activities of Kufuor loyalists such as Chief of Staff Kwadwo Mpiani, the then Roads Minister Richard Anane and the then Presidential Press Secretary Kwabena Agyepong left observers in no doubt that there is always room for some significant gap between Presidential words and Presidential deeds.

Then, though several Ministers were known to support the candidacy of Mr Mac Manu, this was shown in subtle ways, generally. Only Information Minister Dan Botwe came out boldly (notably, after an interview with The Statesman) to openly canvass for the then Western Regional Chairman.

This won the two-term NPP General Secretary a lot of public admiration. Four months later, Mr Botwe lost his Cabinet position. Two months after which he was actively campaigning to become the next flagbearer of the NPP.

As argued in the column, "Pulling No Punches" today, (see P6) the stakes are even higher in this December contest. First, it is for potentially the next President of the Republic.

Second, there is a multitude of contestants. Third, several of the contestants are the heavyweights of the party, commanding significant support bases within the party.

Fourth, the prospect of these heavyweight aspirants sharing any legitimately collective sentiment of being victims of undue presidential favouritism towards a fellow contestant could disturb party unity.

Finally, the result of such a collective emotion of resentment from such party heavyweights could undermine the President’s own authority and standing within a party that just two years ago sent what seemed to be a clear message to the incumbent that the party was not for undue influence.

"President Kufuor should play his cards very maturely or risk turning the weight of a heavy majority of his own party needlessly against him. He’s the only one with the potential to cause a split in the party. No split, however, can be permanent. Yet, it may be deep enough for the length of its healing process to frustrate the speedy post-congress coherence required for the December 2008 battle against the main threat to his legacy, the NDC," so argues the column written under the pen name Qanawu Gabby.