PPP Parliamentary candidate poised to unseat Wa Central MP

 Mr James Sohimwinye, the Progressive People's Party (PPP) Parliamentary candidate for Wa Central Constituency, on Wednesday said he was determined to unseat the incumbent Member of Parliament (MP), Alhaji Abdul-Rashid Pelpuo in the forthcoming December polls.

The 39-year-old Bank Manager said this, in his maiden interaction with the media in Wa.

He said the pragmatic development ideas being trumpeted by the flag-bearer of his party Dr. Paa Kwesi Nduom would help him "do the trick."    

He also believed his hard work at the bank had endeared him to the hearts of the constituents, who according to him were very much ready to reward him with their thumbs.   

 Mr Sohimwinye said even with his current position, he had been able to create some number of jobs for the teeming youth in the constituency and helped some business men and women to grow their businesses. 

 He said the Wa Central Constituency was a business community and needed a business minded person to lead and direct them to these business opportunities.

 He said the PPP's flag-bearer, Dr. Paa Kwesi Nduom and all his Parliamentary candidates were business minded people, capable of managing the country's economy to achieve the needed growth and development.

Mr Sohimwinye said the people of Wa Central Constituency were therefore waiting patiently to go for the PPP, as their only alternative, come December 2012.

Mr Sohimwinye said the PPP's campaign would be based on ideas and not on personalities as had often being the case with the two leading political parties; the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the New Patriotic Party (NPP).

He advised all politicians to be tolerant and civil in their pronouncements in order to make this year's election more peaceful than the previous ones.

Mr. Sohimwinye, until his defection to the PPP was the Upper West Regional representative in the National Executive Committee of the Convention People's Party (CPP) and also the Regional Campaign Coordinator for Dr. Paa Kwesi Nduom, who was then the CPP Presidential candidate for the 2008 elections.

He is currently the Assembly Member for the Zingu Electoral Area in the Wa Municipality and also the PPP Regional Chairman.

GNA

Political party executives sensitized on peaceful polls

The Asante-Akim South District branch of the Coalition of Women in Governance (COWIG) has held a day's seminar for political party executives in the area as part of  efforts to help to make this year's general election a peaceful one.  

 It brought together the leadership of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC), the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and the Progressive People's Party (PPP) at the constituency and polling station levels.  

The seminar which sought to increase women's participation in governance, was under the theme, "We know Politics II Project", and  was funded jointly by the European Union (EU) and Department for International Development (DFID) .

Mr William Ansah Kwakye, the District Chairman of Coalition, called for political tolerance and accommodation, saying, that was the path to grow the country's multi-party democracy.

Politicians should accept to play by the rules of the game, avoid intemperate language and actions likely to create tension and confusion.      

He said it was important for the leadership of the parties to have the courage to rein in their followers who engaged in acts of misconduct. 

Mr Kwakye said Ghana's democracy had won international admiration and it was therefore incumbent on all stakeholders to act responsibly, to build on the achievements made over the last two decades.         

Miss Khadija Musah, a member of COWIG, called on the parties to do more to encourage women to volunteer to take up elective positions.

GNA

 

Political parties and the security in joint peace walk

The leadership and supporters of four political parties in the Ashanti Region at the weekend joined the security services in a peace march in Kumasi to signal their readiness to work together to make the December general polls smooth and violent-free.

The parties are the National Democratic Congress (NDC), New Patriotic Party (NPP), People's National Convention (PNC) and the United Front Party (UFP).       

The well-patronized march started from the Regional Police Headquarters and ended at the Heroes Park where the people were addressed by Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCOP) Augustine Gyening, the Ashanti Regional Commander.

 He spoke about the need for political tolerance and said it was important for all to accept to live in peace and harmony regardless of differences in opinion.

He said political activists should be mindful of their pronouncements and refrain from acts that could trigger security challenges.

 DCOP Gyening reaffirmed that the police would remain politically neutral and would maintain high standards of professionalism in the performance of their duties.       

Mr Fredrick Fredua Antoh, the Ashanti Regional Chairman of the NPP, appealed to his colleague politicians to engage in healthy political discourse devoid of insults, innuendoes and vilification of their opponents.

He urged them to play by the rules of decency and integrity, as they seek to win the mandate of the people to govern.

His NDC counterpart, Mr Yaw Owusu Obimpeh, said the parties should unite in their efforts to protect the peace, security and cohesion of the nation and called for adherence to the political parties' code of conduct to help prevent needless tension.

 

GNA

EC rejects NDP colours

The Electoral Commission (EC) has rejected the black, red, white and green colours presented for registration by the yet to be certified National Democratic Party (NDP), saying it violates the Political Parties Act 574.

The Party has been accordingly advised to work on its colours to conform with section 10 of the Act, which states that  "…No prospective political party shall submit to the Commission for the purpose of registration under this Act any identifying symbol, slogan, colour or name which is the same as the symbol, slogan, colour or name of any other registered political party; or of the Republic; or which so closely resembles the symbol, slogan, colour or name of a registered political party or the Republic as to be likely to deceive or confuse members of the public." 

The official colours of the ruling National Democratic Congress are black, red, white and green.
Mr Kwadwo Safo Kantanka, EC Deputy Chairman in Charge of Operations who made these known in an interview with the Ghana News Agency in Accra at the weekend, said the Commission had set in motion a mechanism to scrutinize the documents presented for registration as a political party by the NDP.   

He said: "In accordance with the Political Parties Act (574) EC is mandated to issue not later than seven days after receipt of the application to the political party, a provisional certificate of registration.

 

The Commission would then cause a notice of the application to be published in the Gazette inviting objections from any person, concerning the name, aim, objects, constitution, rules, symbols, slogans and colours of the party". 

Mr Kantanka said according to the Political Parties law, the Commission may in addition to inviting objections to the application cause independent inquiries to be made so as to ascertain the truth or correctness of the particulars submitted with the application for registration.

On expiration of the 30 days after the date of the publication of the Gazette notice, the Commission shall, if satisfied that the relevant provisions on registration have been complied with register the political party, the Deputy Chairman said. 

"Where within the 30-day period an objection has been brought to the notice of the Commission, it shall not register the political party until the objection has been disposed of to the satisfaction of the Commission.

 

"Where the Commission upholds the objection or if enquiries made disclose that any of the particulars submitted with the application for registration are false, the Commission may refuse to register the party and cancel the provisional certificate issued to that party," he said. 

He explained that issues to consider include ethnic, gender, religious, regional, professional or other sectional divisions, and said the EC would also examine whether NDP's slogans or symbols could arouse ethnic, gender, religious, regional, professional or other sectional divisions. 

On the qualification of founding and executive members as the law, the EC Deputy Chairman said: "A political party shall not have as a founding member, a leader or a member of its executive, a person who is not qualified to be elected as a member of Parliament ... Or is not qualified to hold any public office".  

He further explained that an application to register a political party shall be made to the Commission and shall be accompanied with a copy of the constitution and the rules or regulations, if any, of the political party duly signed by the interim national chairman or leader and by the interim national or general secretary of the party.

He said the party should have on its national executive committee one member from each region; should  have branches in all the regions and should, in addition, be organised in not less than two-thirds of the districts in each region. 

" There should be in each district at least one founding member of the party who is ordinarily resident in the district or is a registered voter in the district;" he said, adding that the party's name, emblem, colour, motto or any other symbol should have no ethnic, gender, regional, religious or other sectional connotation or give the appearance that its activities are confined only to a part of the country.

"The Commission shall not register a political party under this Act unless the internal organisation of the party conforms with democratic principles and its actions and purposes are not contrary to or inconsistent with the Constitution", the EC official declared.

GNA

“No war during and after Polls”-Okyenhene

The Okyenhene, Osagyefo Amoatia Oforipanin, has stated that there would be "no war" before, during and after the December polls.
He said the country would continue to enjoy a peaceful environment and Ghanaians would go about their daily chores without any fear. 

Osagyefo Amoatia said this when the Eastern Regional Minister, Mr Victor Smith, paid a courtesy call on him at his palace at Kyebi on Friday, as part of his familiarization tour to of the East Akyem Municipality.

 

He observed that the upcoming election was not the first the country had ever held and Ghana would continue to enjoy the relative peace it enjoyed after all those past elections.

Osagyefo Amoatia advised the electorate to leave polling stations after casting their ballot to avoid any misunderstanding.

Mr Smith on his part expressed worry over "galamsey' operations in the area, which he said were destroying water bodies and natural resources.

He said those activities posed a threat to future generations, not only in that area, but the country as a whole.

 Mr Smith indicated that under the Minerals Law, all minerals under the soil belonged to government and therefore anyone involved in illegal mining was stealing state property.

He warned galamsey operators to desist from their illegal operations to avoid falling foul of the law.

Mr Smith also advised chiefs, who were giving out concessions to "galamsey" operators to desist from those acts else the law will catch up with them.

He assured Ghanaians that the government would make sure the country remained peaceful before, during and after the December general elections.

GNA

Political Education Access NPP will address disparity in access to education - Nana Akufo-Addo

 

 Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, flagbearer of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), has said his administration would help address the wide disparity between the rich and the poor in accessing tertiary education in the country.

 He said his government would embark on massive expansion of educational infrastructure at the basic school through to the tertiary level across a 10-year period as well as establish a school to serve each community across the country.

Nana Akufo-Addo was responding to a question by a participant at an interaction with some members of professional bodies in Sunyani as part of his campaign tour in the Brong–Ahafo Region. The tour is dubbed "RESTORING HOPE".

The NPP flagbearer's team is also scheduled to hold meetings with the electorate in parts of the region.

 The tour to the Region, which started on July 3, has taken the NPP Presidential candidate to Mehame, Dadiesoaba, Nkaseim, Fienkyemu and Hwidiem. It is expected to end on July 8, 2012.

 The meeting with members of the professional bodies was aimed at tapping their inputs and sharing ideas on how to move the nation forward.

 Nana Akufo-Addo reiterated the need to find lasting solution to the "age old tradition and practice" of polytechnic teachers embarking on strikes to back their demands for better conditions of service.

 

  "It is important to ensure a systemic overhaul of the whole structure, an important challenge that requires the NPP replacing the NDC in government to effect the right and necessary changes on the way things are done", he said.

Nana Akufo-Addo indicated there was a critical need to address the longstanding impasse between teachers, especially those in polytechnics and the government as their roles and contributions were very significant and paramount to the industrial transformation of Ghana's economy.

 He said upon assumption of power, the NPP government would transform the polytechnics into colleges of technology and put special emphasis and premium on such institutions by bringing new changes and improvement in areas such as budget control and syllabus.

 The NPP flagbearer called for a discussion to enable the people to build consensus and find new perspectives to help address pertinent issues and concerns bordering on polytechnic education in the country.

 He said it was also his objective to nip in the bud the phenomenon where access to quality education was restricted to a selected few who could afford, have the contacts and connections with some individuals and institutions.

  He noted that these practices only helped to manage and enforce the class nature in the educational sector thereby denying the poor good quality education.

  Nana Akufo-Addo emphasized his administration would ensure education was made accessible to every child in Ghana, irrespective of economic and financial standing.

 "Free Senior High School is important for the future of Ghana. We are fully committed to broadening access to education at first and second cycle institutions and how to motivate the National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT) and other professional teachers including their terms and conditions of service so children can have the requisite training in education", he said.

 Nana Akufo-Addo added it was part of the NPP's manifesto and gave the promise that teachers would be assisted by the central government to buy personal houses for use during retirement as part of their meritorious contributions and service to the nation.

 He stated that the NPP when voted into power would do all it could to resource farmers with credit to enable them to improve their businesses and channel funds to where they were needed to avoid wastage in the system.

 Nana Akufo-Addo said the current happenings at the Ministry of Justice and Attorney's General Department where a sector Minister and his deputy have different stances on the payment of judgment debt in the Woyome saga, was an "aberration" in President Mills' administration.

He emphasized the need to strengthen state legal system to help entrench the rule of law, adding "there is the urgent need to adequately expand, resource and recruit the scope of the people there".

Replying to a question on the increasing cost of production and its adverse effects in the poultry industry, Mr. Akobour Debrah, MP for Tano North, said there was the need to modernize the industry in order to reduce cost of production.

"This is vital because the world has become a global village and if that is not done one cannot compete effectively on the international market", he said, stressing the need to add value to the production of broilers to make up for the high protein consumption, which stood at 20 to 35 per cent.

 Mr. Kwadwo Adjei Darko, former Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, asked Ghanaians to disabuse their minds about furthering their education at the university level after pursuing polytechnic education.
  "Such attitude turns to make the universities superior to polytechnics and defeats the purpose for which the polytechnics were set up and the law establishing them, since they (polytechnics) are practical-oriented institutions designed to run at par with the Universities.

"All that we want to do is to try as much as possible to enable people who want to attain as high as obtaining a PhD degree at the polytechnic to do so and not necessarily switch over to a public university", he added.

 Nana Akufo-Addo is to continue his tour to Goaso and Mim in Ahafo part of Brong–Ahafo Region.

 

GNA

Catholic Priest admonishes the youth to abstain from violence

The Very Reverend Father James Owusu Yeboah of Holy Rosary Catholic Church in Adenta in Greater Accra, on Sunday asked the youth not to allow politicians to influence theme to cause violence during Election 2012. He noted that only self-seeking politicians would incite people to cause mayhem during the December polls. Rev Fr Yeboah, who is also the Regional Superior for the Society of African Missions at Winneba, said in a homily that Christians are the armour of peace and therefore asked them to shun all acts that would undermine the peace of the nation. He asked Ghanaians to be law abiding and be ambassadors of peace to facilitate the development of the nation. Mr Kobby Hanson, Security Expert asked the congregation to go quietly and exercise their franchise and avoid wearing party paraphernalia to the polling stations.
GNA