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Opinions of Tuesday, 24 January 2023

Columnist: P K Sarpong

Let us go for early conference to elect our presidential and parliamentary candidates

New Patriotic Party (NPP) flag New Patriotic Party (NPP) flag

I see no plausible reasons why the NPP cannot hold an early conference to elect our parliamentary and presidential candidates in preparation for elections 2024.

I am yet to come across any arguments that sound so convincing as to why an early conference to elect our candidates for 2024 would prove detrimental to either the government or party.

As a government, we did so well between 2017 and 2019 till the deadly coronavirus pandemic disrupted our growth trajectory. The devastations caused by COVID-19 are not lost on us.

Needless to also reiterate the apocalyptic events brought upon us by the continuous conflict between Russia and Ukraine as they are well known to us.

In effect, governance hasn’t been rosy at all since 2020. While the government is doing everything it can to bring the economy back to safety, we should also not lose sight of the fact that we have an eight to break.

Things are difficult, truth be told, and so we must start our journey to 2024 as early as possible to cover all the needed tracks. We cannot wait till next year to start selling our presidential candidate when the opposition will begin their campaign after May this year.

There cannot be any justifiable reasons why we have to put our presidential and parliamentary primaries on hold till early next year. The presidential candidate must start campaigning as early as possible. An early conference is the only cure.

I am, therefore, urging all the National Council members not to fail in their duties to ensure that we hold our primaries this year instead of next year. We need an early conference to wheel the party’s electoral machinery into gear.

Many party people are in support of an early conference and our National Council members being our reps, we plead that they listen to us. Early conference is a far better option and if not reasonable than a conference that would be held in 2024.