PNC boycotts Unity Talks

The move by splinter Nkrumaist parties to forge a common front was once again jolted by the People’s National Convention (PNC) when the party refused to attend a crucial meeting slated for Thursday, March 23, this year, “The Independent” reports.

Sometime last February, the PNC refused to attend a similar meeting that was to discuss modalities concerning the unity of the Convention People’s Party (CPP), National Reform Party (NRP) and the People’s National Convention (PNC).

The three parties are locked up in unity talks with the aim of uniting under a single banner to contest future elections.

Sources at the tri-party discussions disclosed that the PNC boycotted the meeting because of its anger at some CPP supporters for allegedly campaigning openly against the PNC in the March 14th Bimbilla by-election which the NPP won with Dominic Nitiwul.

The three Nkrumaist parties in the run-up to the Bimbilla by-election issued a statement to the effect that the other two parties in the unity talks were backing the PNC candidate, but “The Independent” says its investigations showed that the situation was different from what executives of the three parties had anticipated.

“The Independent discovered that one of the candidates who stood independently in the Bimbilla by-election was a member of the NRP. Our sources at the meeting said unlike previous meetings where the PNC leader was represented, the party this time round refused to send a representative and in fact boycotted the meeting entirely. No member of the party was allowed to attend the said meeting.”

The stance of Dr. Edward Mahama and his group came as a shock to representatives of the other parties who had gone to the meeting anticipating that the PNC would attend the meeting for them to appraise the Bimbilla by-election and other matters relating to the unity of the three parties.

The source said almost all executives of the other parties wondered why Dr. Mahama who could not manage the Nitiwul issue has any moral right to criticize ordinary party supporters who decide to support any candidate of their choice.

“In any case, the PNC candidate stood on the ticket of all three parties, so it would be wrong to single out a particular group of people in this instance,” a source reportedly told the paper.

According to the paper, the intransigent of Dr. Mahama who led the PNC in the 1996 and 2000 presidential elections, in the unity talks became manifest at the last meeting of the three parties when the PNC leader refused to attend the said meeting claiming that he could not sacrifice the name of his party and its symbol for that of the more popular CPP.

Interestingly, both the then Convention Party (CP) and the PNC, almost run neck-to-neck in the race to get the CPP name legalized for either of the two parties.

The CPP however managed to beat the PNC on the finishing line to use the famed CPP name.

Dr. Mahama has in the past come up with various theories to back his insistence that the PNC should be the chief negotiator in the unity talks.

He had argued at the meetings of the three parties, according to the daily Guide report that with the PNC having three seats in Parliament as against one by the CPP and none by the NRP, it is only prudent that the PNC gets a larger claim in the unity talks.

Another of Dr. Mahama’s concern is the argument that the PNC comes in perfect line as heir apparent to the Nkrumaist to continue the Nkrumaist heritage and therefore have in its possession the cream of true Nkrumaists to continue from where Dr. Limann left off.