PPP hints of merger ahead of 2016 election

Next year may just see the other political parties - apart from the two major ones - merging to become a force to reckon with in the general election.

Already, behind-the-scene talks are underway between the Convention People’s Party (CPP) and the People’s National Convention (PNC) to contest the 2016 election as a single force.

This played out in the Talensi Constituency by-election on July 7 when the two parties fielded a single candidate, Moses Wumbego, who came third behind candidates of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the New Patriotic Party (NPP).

On his official Facebook page on Thursday, July 23, the Founder of the Progressive People’s Party (PPP), Dr Papa Kwesi Nduom, said 2016 “must not become an NPP or NDC affair.”

“I will fully back a coalition of independent-minded people and political parties who will agree to amend the Constitution to give power back to the people so they can elect their own DCEs; reduce the powers of the President and remove ministers from Parliament as members; provide free, compulsory and continuous education to every child; and check corruption.”

He continued: “Should this coalition happen, I can willingly take a back seat if that is what is needed for us to be successful. Ghana is more important than the ambition of any one of us.”

PPP’s candidate came third in the 2012 presidential election having been founded 11 months before the elections.