NPP Joins International Democratic Union

The New Patriotic Party (NPP) has been formally accepted as a full member of the International Democratic Union (IDU) at its bi-annual party leaders meeting in Washington D.C., USA.

Seven Heads of States, Foreign Ministers and senior government officials from around the world that shared the ideals of the union attended the three-day meeting. A statement issued by Mr Ivor Agyeman-Dua, Minister Counsellor-Information, Ghana Embassy, United States, said Mr Harona Esseko, Chairman, NPP and Mr Joe Baidoe Ansah, Member of Parliament for Effia Kwesimintim, represented the party.

"United States President George Bush, who addressed the meeting, expressed faith in the IDU and said all members upheld the centre-right ideals."

He said in the past, there was a lot of balance between the centre-right and centre-left but now the balance has shifted to the centre-right and 60 per cent of global leadership today were centre-right.

President Bush said it should not be taken to mean that the world was a secure place - "there is terrorism and there are a few people still around, who want to destroy the progressive majority. It is left to the world to search and crush them otherwise we are going to suffer evil."

Mr Esseko told the delegates that democratic development in Ghana was taking roots and said long before the IDU was founded, the late Dr Joseph Boakye Danquah, Founder of NPP tradition was preaching the ideal of free enterprise in the 1950s.

"Danquah like the NPP believed that the ideals of the IDU could only be sustained in the developing world if the developed countries helped the poor since democratic ideals hardly survive in the face of poverty, diseases and disillusionment."

The IDU believes in "democracy and development".