NPP vets aspiring parliamentary candidates in Upper West

Wa, Sept 13, GNA - Mr Stephen Ntim, First National Vice-Chairman of the New Patriotic Party, on Friday said that members of the National Democratic Congress would be deceiving themselves if they thought they could win back power in 2004.

" We killed them in the 2000 elections and we are going to burry them in 2004."

He said this when he briefed newsmen during the second day of vetting of aspiring parliamentary candidates of the party in the Upper West Region at Wa.

Twenty-one candidates who filed nominations to contest the party's primaries in seven of the constituencies in the region were vetted. Mr Ntim said the party had deferred primaries in the Sissala constituency and others throughout the country whose sitting members of parliament were not NPP members but had identified with it in parliament.

He said the exercise, which would be completed by the end of this month, was aimed at weeding out infiltrators and to ensure that only the best human materials represented the party in the next general elections.

Mr Ntim said after the exercise if any of those who eventually won the in the primaries was found to be flirting with any other party and could cross carpet, nominations would be re-opened in that constituency. Mr Ntim hinted that there was the likelihood of disqualification of some of the aspirants at the end of the exercise.

"Because things are juicy now that we are in power some people have come to reap where they have not sown and we will also not like what happened at Wulensi to be repeated by our party."

According to him, even those who were unopposed were going through the vetting to ensure that only those who could beat the NDC were put forward as parliamentary candidates.

" We are the forerunners of democracy and we will show it by actions and not by words alone."