Ghana Votes

Monday, October 21, 2013

Let’s broaden unity talks –CPP

The General Secretary of the Convention People's Party, Mr Kobina Ivor Greenstreet, has reaffirmed that the CPP and the People's National Convention are re-engaging each other to conclude unity talks as soon as possible.

He has, however, suggested that to make the talks comprehensive, there was the need not only to include the Progressive People's Party but the Great Consolidated Popular Party and the National Democratic Congress.

In an interview with the Daily Graphic, Mr Greenstreet said that "both the GCPP and the NDC were broad left, similar to that of CPP and PNC, and therefore such an effort benefit those parties and Ghanaians in general."

The CPP general secretary was responding to the disclosure by the Chairman of the PNC, Alhaji Ahmed Ramadan, in an interview with the Daily Graphic last week that the PNC was shelving early congress to conclude unity talk's agreement with the CPP.

In that interview last week, the chairman of the PNC said the unity talks would also include the PPP so as to garner aggregate votes.

However, in the view of Mr Greenstreet, to broaden the discussion, there was the need for other parties' participation, hence the need for the CPP and the PNC not only to include the PPP, but also the GCPP and the NDC.

"It is not just about parties coming together, but more importantly, uniting in ideas for the progress of the nation."

According to Mr Greenstreet, if the Ghanian electorates see that parties with similar ideas cannot unite, then they have the right to question their capacity to govern.

The CPP general secretary explained that eight months of the 2012 Election Petition trial at the Supreme Court effectively placed governance in a limbo and said "if Ghana is to achieve key development objectives, then it calls for a collaborative approach."

"Sometimes our political environment appears too divisive," Mr Greenstreet observed and wondered why too much partisan politics was occupying the public sphere such that as a nation, Ghana has its progress not being as swift as it ought to be.

He, therefore, challenged political parties, both centre and broad left, to rather concentrate efforts at working together to assist the government achieve its national development objectives.

He said the time to make national progress was now and that failure to do so was not in the interest of the nation.

"While we are out of the election mood," Mr Greenstreet said, "this is the time to engage and present a united front.

"We will take a cue from his leadership (Alhaji Ahmed Ramadan, the PNC chair) and reinvigorate the unity talk process.

"This, in my humble view, would be a significant step taken by the parties;" adding that "key aspect of any road map to Election 2016 should take us to better election results."

"Anything we can do to take us to win Election 2016 or bring this into fruition is important," he concluded, but asked "how long can these splinter groups continue to work individually and yet expect to achieve results?"


Source: Daily Graphic

 

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