DPP outdoors vice presidential candidate

Accra, Nov. 5, GNA - The Democratic People's Party (DPP) on Wednesday outdoored a 63 year-old retired banker, Peter Dwamena, as the party's vice presidential candidate to join forces with Mr Thomas N. Ward-Brew, the presidential candidate for Election 2008.

Mr Dwamena, former staff of the Ghana Commercial Bank (GCB), hails from Obo-Kwahu in the Eastern Region, becomes the sixth vice presidential candidate to be outdoored for the December polls.

The main opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) was the first to outdoor Mr John Dramani Mahama, followed by the ruling New Patriotic Party (Dr Mahamadu Bawumia); Convention Peoples Party's (Dr Abu Sakara Foster); People's National Convention's; (Ms Petra Maria Amegashie) and Democratic Freedom Party (Ms Patience Amesimeku). Presenting the candidate to the press in Accra, Mr Ward-Brew said: "Peter Dwamena is a retired banker who spent over 25 long years of his carrier working for the GCB. That is a long and adequate time for him to appreciate the dynamics of mortgage crisis that is confronting the world."

He said the nation needed not to wait to go through the same trauma but must prepare to meet the challenges, adding, "Ghana needs to monitor the actions of our financial and banking institutions." In his acceptance speech, Mr Dwamena called on the electorate to correct the mistake they made in 2000 and vote for the DPP in the December 7 elections.

The DPP, which stands for freedom, peace, unity, transparency, development and prosperity, is committed to the ideals, philosophy and vision of Dr Kwame Nkrumah, first president of Ghana. He said it was Dr Nkrumah's government that liberated Ghana from colonialism by leading her to achieve independence in 1957, and DPP is in position to lead Ghana out of "economic slavery".

A DPP government, he said, would create an enabling environment for farmers to obtain long-term loans with low interest rates from the banks to revamp the country's agriculture.

Mr Dwamena said education, which is the pivot of development, had been neglected under both the NDC and NPP governments, adding that a DPP government would reform it to enable every child to benefit from free, relevant education to the highest level.

He said the return of DPP to the political scene had revived the hopes and aspirations of the people for a better future. Mr Dwamena urged the electorate to demonstrate this hope in concrete terms by giving DPP the mandate to transform the country with new and better policies.

The party used the occasion to launch its 63-page Election 2008 Manifesto dubbed; "God is Great," which focuses on national cohesion, polarization of the country, reduction of campaign funding, needed economic reforms, protecting chieftaincy from partisan politics and national government.

Other issues include ethnicity; discipline, employment and social security; corruption; security demands; decentralization; local government; recruitment of security personnel; dealing with unemployment; national youth employment programme; health and sanitation; improving the economy through job creation; teacher training and establishment of special agricultural units.

The rest are industrialization; housing programme; road construction; road safety; transportation; the construction industry; tourism sector; science and technology; foreign policy and regional integration and sports; and the media.