Kufuor's "pets" to ride home - Tactics at play

The Chronicle writes that the race for the seven national executive posts on offer at the seventh Annual National Delegates Conference of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) is on the homestretch, but the contest for the posts is dimming.

The paper says it can reveal that the list for the seven national executive posts of Chairman, three Vice-Chairmen, Treasurer will be known before the conference delegates begin casting their votes Saturday afternoon.

General Secretary Dan Botwe has already booked his flight for the next three years, standing as the only unopposed candidate.

The Chronicle says sources within the NPP have confirmed to it that shuffling for the various posts has intensified in the past few days, with the pro-Kufuor camp within the party gaining the upper hand.

According to the sources, seven officers are being seriously campaigned for as the “chosen ones” to lead the party for the next three years.

The names revealed include the first Vice Chairman of the Central Regional NPP, Haruna Esseku, who has been penciled down to replace the Canada-bound diplomat and incumbent Chairman, Samuel Odoi-Sykes.

The three vice-chairs on the list include Messrs Stephen Ayensu Ntim, Edmund Annan, and the 58-year old Agnes Adzo Okudzeto.

The Treasurer goes to the 68-year old Harvard-trained Michael Dugan, the chairman of the Election Committee for the 1998 elections and for the Logistics Committee of the December elections.

The post of National Organiser originally expected to go to the Deputy Greater Accra Regional Chairman, Lord Commey, is likely to be parceled out to Alhaji Sulemana Bartholomew Mousieyiri, sources hinted.

Meanwhile, the number of contestants vying for the available posts continues to reduce by the day and is expected to whittle down from the original 34 to about 18 on voting day. The number of contestants currently stands at 22.

Chronicle says by any reckoning, Saturday’s congress would be a far departure from the three-day August 1998 National Delegates Conference at the Amegashie Auditorium of the School of Administration, Legon Accra. This conference is a one-day event expected to close at 9 p.m. Saturday with most of the activities associated with the previous conferences put off.