General News of Monday, 22 December 2014

Source: GNA

Let there be more decency in politics - Kwabena Agyepong

The General Secretary of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Mr. Kwabena Agyei Agyepong, has called for more decency and tolerance among politicians.

He said the intemperate language, propaganda, insults and pure lies would have to end to restore confidence and trust of Ghanaians in democratic governance.

He was delivering a goodwill message from his party to the governing National Democratic Congress (NDC) at its eighth delegates’ congress to elect new officers at the Baba Yara Sports Stadium in Kumasi.

More than 3,600 delegates have gathered at the place to decide the fate of about 70 candidates, who had put themselves up for election to various positions.

The expectation, Mr Agyepong said, was that they would celebrate diversity of opinion and build on that to promote good governance.

The centre piece of politics must be on the welfare of the under privileged and not on trivialities.

Mr. Agyepong expressed concern about what he said was the dissipation of the nation’s resources and asked for strict financial discipline, by those entrusted with the national purse.

His Convention People’s Party (CPP) counterpart, Mr. Ivor Greenstreet, was blunt in his assessment of the performance of the NDC in government, declaring that the people were suffocating under unbearable economic hardship.

He made reference to the country’s erratic power supply and unending agitation on the industrial front, and accused the ruling party of insensitivity.

Ghanaians were watching the NDC, he said, and would not forgive them but punish them in 2016, he said to boos from the delegates.

Mr Bernard Mornah, General Secretary of People’s National Convention (PNC), also condemned leaders, who would not engage politics of ideas and issues.

There were other messages from the Progressive Peoples’ Party (PPP) and the United Front Party (UFP) and Ghana Freedom Party (GFP).

Meanwhile, voting to elect the new national executives is underway and expected to travel deep into the night.