Nii Allotey Brew Hammond (middle) with Vivian Sackey, National Women’s Organizer and Mike Eghan, Chairman of PPP Council of Elders, at the press conference
The Progressive People’s Party (PPP), in an apparent bid to strengthen its portfolio, has invited like-minded progressive political parties to join forces with it and create an alternative political grouping to the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and the National Democratic Congress (NDC).
Nii Allotey Brew Hammond, National Chairman of the PPP, addressing the media yesterday, said the party believes that it is only by bringing forces together that the NPP and the NDC duopoly can be broken.
“The party believes in an unconditional approach,” he said. “Accordingly, it is open to alliance, merger and any joint action that will enable the winning of parliamentary seats and the presidency,” he articulated.
He explained that the National Committee had authorized party leaders to approach other political parties, pressure groups and individuals with the aim of bringing forces together to forge a united front in the shortest time possible.
Mr. Hammond said the party reached the decision due to the realization that alternating power between the NDC and the NPP while implementing essentially the same policies and winner-takes-all attitude to governing the country would not strengthen the economy and improve the standard of living of the ordinary Ghanaian.
He said the 2016 election campaign and results had proven the point that Ghanaians want an alternative to the political parties that had been winning elections since the beginning of the Fourth Republic; but they want to see a united front that is formidable and one they can feel can win elections.
“Signs threatening ‘light or no vote,’ ‘water or no vote’ and ‘road or no vote’ all point to the fact that the people have realized that they only seem to have power before and not after elections. This situation, we want a united front of like-minded people to change by coming together to offer the change the people can feel AFTER elections,” he added.
Mr. Hammond said the party wants to see solutions provided with a sense of urgency to meet domestic needs for industry and domestic use and make Ghana a net exporter of power again.
“We believe that this move will make available for governance a large pool of qualified, experienced Ghanaian talents whose expertise is currently unused and therefore lost to Ghana,” he noted.
By Jamila Akweley Okertchiri