Mahamudu Bawumia, the 2012 Vice Presidential Candidate for the New Patriotic Party has asked members of the NPP to adopt a proper response that will win the party election in view of the fact it has now become clear in the country that going to the courts to seek redress for electoral malpractices or fraud is not the best option for electoral victory.

Dr Bawumia particularly wants the NPP to learn to fight hard and be more alert and combative at the polling stations to secure the votes cast in favour of the party to ensure total victory in the 2016 elections.

According to the renowned economist and one time deputy governor of the Bank of Ghana, even though at the tail end of the 2012 presidential election petition trial at the Supreme Court it became clear that the Electoral Commission had been caught to have forged 17 pink sheets, that could not serve as the final nailing point for victory for the petitioners.

Dr Bawumia was addressing the delegates’ conference of the various branches of the NPP in the United States of America at Charlotte, in North Carolina.

“You are all living witnesses that we assembled the best documents, we proved that we had the best lawyers, our arguments were well coordinated and well delivered, we told the judges that the entire elections were fraught with malpractices but in the end what was the outcome?” he asked.

“It tells us that the courts are certainly not the option for victory,” the man who was the star witness for the petitioners in the NPP-sponsored presidential election petition remarked.

Dr Bawumia further urged NPP members not to allow the ongoing internal contests to select party leaders to break the party’s front. He noted that even though it was natural for temperatures to rise when there was competitions and struggle for positions, that “must not come to break our ranks, rather it has to solidify us and make us rather stronger.”

“At this point, what we need to do is to pull our strength together and rather fight our political enemies and not ourselves,” he added, calling for conscious efforts to ensure that all members of the party come together and fight for electoral victory in 2016.

The Member of Parliament for Assin Central, Kennedy Agyapong, called for calm and unity in the party, explaining that where there is unity the party can marshal forces to win power.

He therefore asked all factions to concentrate on efforts that will solidify the front of the party and make it stronger enough to enable it conquer power in 2016.

Mr Agyepong urged the party’s delegates to elect leaders who have integrity and are prepared to die a little for the party first, rather than those who will seek their own interest at the expense of the party.