The Minister of Employment and Social Welfare, Enoch Teye Mensah, has laughed off claims by the incumbent�s only challenger, Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings, that a Mills victory in Sunyani will push the ruling party back into opposition in 2012.
The former First Lady President made the declaration during her last address to Journalists in Accra on Wednesday July 6, shortly before leaving for Sunyani for the historic contest scheduled for Saturday July 9, 2011 at the Sunyani Coronation Park.
She accused the Mills administration of presiding over a sharply divided party, whose presidency since January 2009 has stalled the nation�s progress.
However, the Ningo Prampram Member of Parliament told CitiNews he is convinced that the timing of the former First lady�s bid is terribly wrong and will produce an embarrassing defeat. �This is President Mills� time and any talk of defeat for the Professor must be a big joke,� he said in the interview with Citi FM�s Richard Sky.
�There is nowhere in this world where a sitting president is contested midway, just two and a half years (into his term). This has only happened to those who brought democracy to us, and one of the biggest democracies in this world is America... they are 234 years old, and only two presidents were challenged midway. President Carter was challenged by Ted Kennedy, and when that happened their party went into opposition for more than 16 years. And one of the things he has written in his autobiography was that if there was anything that he regretted in his political life it was him to have challenged the sitting president Jimmy Carter, for the same reasons that we are talking about � too slow etc, so that is also an issue,� he pointed out.
He predicted that President Mills will record a sweeping victory in Sunyani on Saturday July 9, 2011 to reflect the hopes and aspirations of the rank and file of the NDC.
This is the first time that a sitting president under the Fourth Republican constitution is being openly challenged for his party�s ticket going into an election.
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