<<Print>>

Former First Lady Nana Konadu Agyeman-Rawlings is confident that she will win the flagbearership position of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) when the party goes to congress on Saturday to elect a leader. Nana Konadu has promised to trounce incumbent President Mills come Saturday when they go to congress. Nana Konadu, wife of the party founder, former President Jerry John Rawlings, told NDC Members of Parliament (MPs) yesterday when she met the Majority caucus that she was sure of dealing President Mills a devastating blow. She went to the House in the company of one of her three daughters, Amina, who has been a regular part of her campaign team, together with Namburr Berrick and her campaign coordinator, as well as Michael Teye Nyaunu, MP for Lower Manya. At the time Mrs Rawlings arrived, some NDC Members of Parliament (MPs) including Majority Leader Cletus Avoka, remained glued to their seats, waiting anxiously to listen to whatever message she had for them. Immediately she arrived, they went into a closed door meeting at the new committee building in Parliament. The meeting was said to have been held in a friendly atmosphere, with the MPs showing a lot of interest. But Majority Leader Cletus Avoka, who was part of the meeting, said they would have preferred incumbent President Mills going unchallenged, as did former Presidents Kufuor and Rawlings, in order not to stir a hornet�s nest. That notwithstanding, he stressed the hope that they would return from the congress with a united front no matter who gets elected to lead the party whilst other MPs asked for civility, decorum and respect to prevail throughout the process. On her part, Mrs Rawlings said if the MPs had met and spoken to her three months ago, she might have considered their call for her to step down. The MPs had said that during a visit they paid the NDC founder, they made it a point that he should talk to her to consider pulling out, but she was not available and therefore it was too late then. Now that all was set for the contest, she indicated that there was virtually nothing she could do except go and win the primaries, which she believed she could. The former First Lady gave the MPs her word that she would respect the final verdict of the election. It appears as though the campaign team of Mrs. Rawlings has launched a three-prong approach in the last lap to congress as part of efforts to mop up campaign in the run-up to the congress which is only three days away. Whilst the former First Lady was meeting the MPs in Accra, her husband was away in the Volta region, the heartbeat of the party, together with his spokesman and some members of her campaign team, meeting with delegates and telling them why they needed to change the man in the driving seat and replace him with a more capable person. The Electoral Commission has also spelt out guidelines for the NDC congress contrary to what NDC party General Secretary Johnson Asiedu-Nketia and his cohort had planned to use. They were planning to conduct the voting process on regional basis but the EC�s guidelines clearly deviate from this process, indicating that there would be a number of polling stations at the congress. The Ghana News Agency quoted a source at the EC as hinting that under the current provisions, two regions would be required to vote at a polling station, with the exception of delegates from the Ashanti region who are to vote at one polling station because of their large number. The decision was said to have been reached at a meeting between representatives of the two contestants, President Atta Mills and Nana Konadu and officials of the EC on Monday. Apart from that, the EC was also said to have resolved the controversy over the printing of the ballot papers to be used for the voting. President Mills occupies the number one position on the ballot paper, with Konadu being second. But Spokesman for the Rawlingses Kofi Adams believes Nana Konadu has already won the flagbearership position of the party since the congress is just to ratify her candidature. �We are going to Sunyani for ratification. Konadu has already won. What is happening in Sunyani is a ratification ceremony,� he said on telephone. This, he said, was because �the support on the grounds is very solid. �The delegates are people on the ground. We did not just speak with the delegates but we interacted with the party supporters also.� However, Kofi Adams said there still remain some concerns which have not yet been addressed. Though he admitted that their major concerns had been addressed, he said there were still issues with the voters� register, saying, �We are told that some delegates� names are being dropped so we are waiting for the register to come, then we look at it.�