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Diasporia News of Friday, 26 September 2003

Source: Chronicle

CPP (UK) is Most Vibrant Party in UK - Chairman

The Chairman of the United Kingdom (UK) branch of the Convention Peoples Party (CPP), Nii Armah Akonfra has stated that their presence at the congress has shown their commitment to the party as the most active political party in the UK.

He added that, people should abandon the perception that the CPP would never come to power and be loyal to the party.

The UK chairman made this statement in an interview with The Chronicle in Accra yesterday on the activities of the CPP in the UK and the congress.

He noted that the congress was very successful in the sense that he had been to previous CPP congresses since 1996 and anybody who was there and saw the turn out would realise that both the old and young were united. "This is the most united congress I have ever attended".

Nii Armah explained that at currently,the party does not have the money to do what other parties can do because they are not in government. "It is simply because we don't have the money to build the kind of service that other people have but in terms of substance we managed to get all our delegates to vote. I think that is the success of the congress".

He refuted allegations that the former chairman (Mr. Mahama) was more popular than Mr. Aggudey saying that, the party was going according to the decision of the congress.

He asked all party faithfuls that since they had chosen Aggudey, every registered member would have to rally around the flagbearer and the new leadership to be able to come to power and relieve the people of their burden, adding that, the CPP was back to be to improve the lives of the people.

Asked why they had so far not gone into a coalition with any party as other parties were doing, the vice chairman, Mr. Oduro Kwarteng said they want to build an independent and viable party, "We are not going to be sharing our ideas with other parties. So why do we talk about coalition."

He said the congress was a congress beyond their imagination and that the success of it was that the party had been able to organize a congress that everyone thought it would not be a reality.

He admitted that those that had been elected were people, who the congress felt were solely committed to the party.

Four yeas ago, Dr. Delli and Mr. Aggudey were defeated and yet they did not crumble, they did not leave the party, they stayed there and supported it financially and otherwise. Dr. Mahama was given the mandate sometime ago and he performed well enough, he said.

He debunked the notion that the CPP was a dead party saying that anyone who was around to see the aftermath of the congress would see that the CPP was certainly not dead, adding that, their presence was even a testament to the fact that, the CPP was vibrant internationally and had a track record to make a positive impact in the 2004 elections.

He advised Ghanaians that the NDC followed the path, which had been found, to have failed. The NPP was following the same path. Ghanaians should realize that the only alternative to that failed path is the CPP path and we have a track record and we mean to all Ghanaians to entrust us to continue to do things that we have done before, he added.