Who leads CPP to Election 2016?
The question as to who will lead the Convention People’s Party (CPP) in the 2016 elections will be decided tomorrow when party delegates converge on the Ghana
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International Trade Fair Centre, La in Accra, for the party’s presidential primary.
With barely 10 months to this year’s general election, the CPP last Tuesday evening, as a prelude to the primary, held its maiden presidential debate for all the four candidates who are contesting the election.
Former party Chairperson, Ms Samia Yaaba Christina Nkrumah, is in a face-off with two-time former General Secretary, Mr Ivor Greenstreet; twice defeated flag bearer aspirant and lawyer, Bright Oblitei Akwetey, and a newcomer, Mr Joseph Agyapong, in the party’s flag-bearer race to elect a presidential candidate for the 2016 elections .
Last Tuesday’s debate among Ms Nkrumah, Messrs Greenstreet, Akwetey and Agyapong turned out to be a friendly expression of views which, undoubtedly, enriched the democratic space.
Aspirants’ key agenda
While Ms Nkrumah, the daughter of Ghana’s First President, Dr Kwame Nkrumah, says her mission is to finish her father’s unaccomplished seven-year development plan for
Ghana and adapt it to today’s changing circumstances, Mr Greenstreet called on all CPP delegates to vote for a unifier who will galvanise and energise all the talents in the party with greater charisma.
Mr Akwetey (he contested in 2008 and 2012), an ardent Nkrumaist who is aspiring to lead the CPP as a presidential candidate for the third time, says “watching the CPP, once the touchstone of political power in Ghana and institutional machinery that laid the foundation for the prosecution of the progressive agenda of our nation sink to such depths of virtual dormancy, has provoked me to act in liberation of the priceless heritage”.
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Mr Agyapong, on the other hand, is stressing the need for the country to build systems, including a national database, for the sustainable development of the country.
History in the making
If the bid of the only female aspirant is endorsed by the delegates, Ms Nkrumah, who is the first female to chair a major political party in the country, will once again become the first official female presidential candidate in Ghana.
Mr Greenstreet, on the other hand, who uses a wheelchair after surviving a near-fatal motor accident in 1997, if successful at the primary, will become the first physically challenged presidential candidate in the country.
Key challenge
Which of them, in the final analysis, leads the CPP in the 2016 elections and offer the party an opportunity to catapult itself from the nadirs of political derision to its status as the trailblazer of Ghanaian and African politics, is the litmus test facing the delegates Saturday.
The CPP won triple electoral victories in 1951, 1954 and 1956 to secure freedom for Ghana. Those victories established the party as the traditional majority party in the electoral politics of Ghana.
The resurrection of the party, after 13 years of proscription, to win the general election in 1979 also confirmed it as the party to beat in Ghana’s politics.
The governments of the CPP and its successor party, the People’s National Party (PNP), were overthrown in 1966 and 1981, respectively, with the CPP being banned in 1968/9 and has remained divided since 1992.
In this Fourth Republic, the CPP is struggling to make a real impact on the politics of the country.
How to continue with preparations to improve its electoral performance in the Fourth Republic, better still move from below one per cent to more than 50 per cent to capture political power in the 2016 election, is another key challenge delegates will be confronted with tomorrow.
Many have expressed regret over the unfortunate departure of Dr Papa Kwesi Nduom, who was the party’s presidential candidate in the 2008 elections, and a sizeable membership of the leadership of the party after the 2011 party congress.
Lately, many have equally bemoaned the threat by the 2012 presidential candidate, Dr Abu Sakara, to leave the CPP.
All these are outstanding issues which do not bode well for a party united for victory. It is the expectation of many lovers of the CPP that it will come out from tomorrow’s congress more united than divided.
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Previous performance
The CPP, in past presidential elections in the Fourth Republic, has not fared well. For instance, in the 2000 presidential election, Professor George Hagan, who led the party, got only 115,641 votes, representing 1.80 per cent. In 2004, Mr George Aggudey took the mantle and could only attract 85,968 votes, representing just one per cent.
In 2008, Dr Nduom injected some sense of urgency into the campaign and was able to increase the voter fortune of the party to 113,494, representing 1.34 per cent.
Its fortunes dwindled again in 2012 when Dr Nduom broke away to form the Progressive People’s Party (PPP). Dr Sakara, who led the CPP in that year, put up the worst performance when he managed only 20,323 votes, representing 0.18 per cent of votes cast in that election.
Political analysts are waiting with bated breath the outcome of the congress to see who will emerge as the flag bearer to rekindle the enthusiasm in the party in its quest to rule Ghana.
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Meanwhile, some see it as a close race between Ms Nkrumah and Mr Greenstreet, but it appears delegates are likely to endorse the only daughter of the late President Nkrumah as the presidential candidate of the CPP in 2016.
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