Nduom to name female running mate on Wednesday

The flag bearer of the Progressive People’s Party, Dr Papa Kwesi Nduom, will officially name his running mate on Wednesday.

The running mate position of the party has been narrowed down to two distinguished personalities and all of them are females.

The National Executive Committee of the party in broad consultation with the party’s flag bearer are to endorse one of the candidates who will be named on Wednesday.

Speaking to the Daily Graphic in a telephone chat on the subject matter, Dr Nduom simply said that “by Wednesday I will name my running mate after broad consensus.”

He said that the party was putting everything in place to ensure that the running mate plays an influential role in the campaign of the party to win the 2012 polls.

He indicated that the party was launching its second phase of campaign to win the Central Region yesterday.

“We are putting in place the needed structures to ensure that the party wins at least four constituencies in the region and garners majority votes as far as the presidential for the 2012 is concerned,” he told the Daily Graphic.

On recent surveys being conducted throughout the country, he said the PPP was only interested in polls that focuses on which of the presidential candidates would perform better when given the mandate to govern the country.

He added that it was the individual candidates who were expected to show leadership by example and not the political parties.

In his view, surveys that only focus on the ruling National Democratic Congress or the New Patriotic Party would be of no interest to the PPP, adding “What we in the PPP are interested in is the character, leadership abilities, vision and mission of all the presidential candidates. This is why we keep emphasising the need for the Ghanaian electorate to examine the track records of all the presidential candidates so as to make informed decisions and choices for the 2012 elections,” he stated.

Dr Nduom last Friday met the Central Region media at Elmina.

He used the occasion to call on party members to stay loyal to the PPP and educated them on their responsibilities and roles as well as spelt out what the Ghanaian private sector should expect from a PPP administration under his presidency.

The PPP flag-bearer also explained the party’s quality free, compulsory and continuous education from kindergarten to the senior high school and transparency and accountability in governance.

He reiterated his call on the other presidential aspirants, especially President John Dramani Mahama and Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo of the NPP, to show commitment to his call for strict separation of powers.

These include the prohibition of Members of Parliament from being appointed as Ministers of State; the direct election of district, municipal and metropolitan chief executives without any interference from the President and strengthening of the office of Attorney-General by separating it from the Ministry of Justice.

Dr Nduom also repeated his call for all presidential candidates to make available to the public, their total assets, income tax returns, the disclosure of health records and sources of campaign funding of all political parties before the December elections, and to conduct campaigns that would prove their competence and ability to offer solutions to the nation’s numerous problems.

Source: Daily Graphic