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The National Chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Stephen Ntim, has urged members to ensure they forgo all their differences after the party’s presidential primaries.
The primaries takes place on Saturday, November 4, 2023, to elect a presidential candidate for the 2024 election.
Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, Vice President of the Republic; Dr. Owusu Afriyie Akoto, former Minister of Food and Agriculture; Kennedy Agyapong, sitting member of Parliament for Assin Central and Francis Addai Nimoh, a former member of Parliament for Mampong Constituency in the Ashanti Region, are the four candidates.
Addressing a press conference, he stated that the most important thing is for the party members to close their ranks and rally behind the candidate who emerges as the winner after the internal polls.
“Saturday, November 4th, is crucial for the New Patriotic Party. By the close of the day on Saturday, H.E. Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, who has admirably led our party for 16 successful years, will perform the first of two handovers: first to one of the four aspirants who emerges victorious to succeed him as the leader of the party and second, to that same leader and flagbearer of the NPP, to succeed him as the President of the Republic of Ghana on January 7, 2025.
“This is the nature and consequence of the November 4th flagbearer election. We are determined to win a third term because the development of Ghana depends on an NPP victory in the 2024 general elections. That victory begins this Saturday, and every member of this party has something significant to do with it. It requires that we are disciplined as a party. Failure to be disciplined, ensure internal peace and cohesion, and be responsive to our mandate will gravely imperil our electoral prospects,” Mr. Stephen Ntim said.
He stressed the need for unity and recounted how disunity caused them in the 2008 general elections.
“The most painful part of that experience is that we lost the presidential election in the second round after we had increased our votes by 321,000, whereas all we needed to win in the first round was a little over 100,000 votes.
“In other words, we gifted the NDC the elections in 2008 because our people did not come out to vote in the first round. We are at the same point today, and some of the factors that led to us losing the election in 2008 are rearing their ugly heads.
“One of the chief contributors to our defeat in the 2008 general elections is the lack of unity of purpose or internal cohesion. We cannot afford to be disunited even briefly after the results are declared on Saturday. We must guard against any conduct, actions, or inactions likely to take us on a path of apathy and disunity,” he observed.
He added “There can only be one flagbearer at a time. I fondly recall the enthusiasm and unity that characterized our approach to the 1996 and 2000 elections. It was apparent we wanted to win as a party. But the height of enthusiasm and conviction with which we canvassed for victory in the 2000 general elections has waned considerably, and we must reignite it now,” Ntim said.
According to him, “The alternative to an NPP government is scary, and the alternative to us is empty. These statements are valid because the NDC has not put forth any policy ideas to address the youth unemployment challenge, which is the preoccupation of governments worldwide.”
