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Opinions of Sunday, 6 November 2011

Columnist: Mutala, Kwame

CPP Leadership must act now

! And stop being LACKADAISICAL *

* *

CPP National elections took place nearly 2 months ago amidst fanfare and jubilation. There was a great euphoria created as if great things were about to happen. Two months after, we have not seen or heard anything tangible from the leadership.

There is a so much NOISE about grass root organization without any concrete steps been taken to achieve that. How exactly is the leadership planning to achieve this? Grassroots organization is aided by Parliamentary candidates. The constituency has not heard from the leadership and time is ticking. Every day, we read about other presidential candidates going around doing door to door campaigns.

Parliamentary candidates of other political parties are campaigning to win souls at the grass roots. How long shall we wait for action from the Leadership? How Long? The Presidential and Parliamentary elections are pre requisites to grass roots organization. Our market proposition is being swallowed up by other competing parties as we sit on side line reading statement from Leadership on useless things.

A recent article entitled ‘*CPP to respect Protocols’* is one of such useless statements. An aspiring CPP presidential candidate, made a statement on floods in Ghana which is substantively correct. Then people sit around to waste time and energy because CPP was mentioned in the article. Professor Akosa made a statement on the British Prime Ministers statement as it related to homosexuality entitled *“CPP leading member blasts UK's pro-gay aid strings”*. Why did CPP not react to this article? The import is to leave people alone and simply get the work done.

Two months after election, why has the party not appointed a Chairman for Publicity and Communication committee? The so-called units under the office of the Chairperson is equally worrisome, it is simply unconstitutional. In the article entitled ‘*CPP to Respect Protocols’*, it states the following: “*On a normal basis, all official announcements on behalf of the CPP are made by the Chairperson of the party, the General Secretary, the Media and Information Unit at the office of the Chairperson or anyone who has been designated to speak on the party’s behalf by the Chairperson*.”

The Chairperson and General Secretary can speak but the structure says that there is a Publicity and Communications Chairman through whom the General Secretary and Chairperson speaks. Again, in the constitution, there is no such thing as an Information Unit. None whatsoever, it is alien to the constitution that guides the party.

According to the CPP constitution, The Chairperson does not have the power to appoint or designate anyone to speak for or on behalf of the CPP. It is indeed the prerogative of the Central Committee. The party is not a dictatorship, it is guided by a constitution and all must abide by it. The real question is ‘why is the leadership so slow to act on critical issues and quick to act on useless matters’? Why?

It is very nerve-racking to note that the chairman of CPP is reported to have said on Choice fm that the party has decided to hold Presidential and Parliamentary elections next year, March, 2012. The CPP constitution states in article 78(3) that ‘It must elect a flag bearer at least 24 months to elections’. Granted that the Constitution was amended two months ago, we should abide by the 12 months clause in the previous constitution. The Chairpersons statement is in contravention to the Constitution once again. The Central Committee (CC) of the party is the highest administrative decision making body of the party. Central Committee is the only body that can come out with dates for election and not any single individual.

Can the leader of the CPP say that, her words are that of the Central Committee? We need to know now! Leadership of the CPP must work with a great sense of urgency. TIME waits for no one. What the leadership must understand is that, the same people who elected her into office are now second guessing their decision.

Chairman and Leader of the CPP, you must act quickly or the masses will not act kindly to you at all. Let the competition begin for Parliamentary and Presidential elections.

We the masses are waiting for you to get your act together. Election Now or Never! * Signed**: *

*Kwame Mutala*

*CPP Northern Regional Youth Organizer*

*0242 529 413*

*0206 370 489*

*4th November, 2011*