Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings
Former First Lady Nana Konadu Agyeman-Rawlings has finally taken up the challenge to contest the flagbearership position of the newly formed National Democratic Party (NDP).
The interim general secretary of the National Democratic Congress’s breakaway party, Dr Joseph Mamboa-Rockson, who confirmed the information said, “Yes! The former First Lady is one of them; we are still waiting for her to come up at the congress as the flagbearer.”
She is expected to resign from the ruling NDC, a party founded by her husband and former President Jerry John Rawlings.
Nana Konadu, a former vice chairperson of the NDC, contested the flagbearership slot of the ruling party with the late President John Evans Atta Mills, but lost at the party’s congress at Sunyani last year.
Apart from Mrs. Rawlings, two other persons are also said to have expressed interest in the position.
But speaking on Accra-based Joy FM, Dr Mamboa-Rockson said, “The three of them are currently and I believe that they are talking in terms of merging up and getting us a formidable person.”
He, however, declined to disclose the name of the two other persons in contention for the flagbearership position of the NDP but indicated that “now that she (Nana Konadu) has shown the interest, we believe that a consensus would be reached among the three so that Mrs. Rawlings becomes the flagbearer and then we get the running mate.”
The party expects no less than 7,500 members and 2,500 delegates to converge on the Kumasi Sports Stadium on Saturday, October 13, when it goes to congress to elect a flagbearer and substantive national executives.
Unlike other congresses that elect executives, the NDP scribe said, “We are going in there for the national executives and then we can also endorse our flagbearer.”
He could neither confirm nor deny whether former President Rawlings would be at the event but expressed hope that the ‘old man’ would make time to grace the occasion.
“You remember that I was always saying that the Rawlingses are behind us; now we’ve got one out of the …let’s hope that the other one follows,” he noted.
Nana Konadu is said to have picked up forms to contest the flagbearership position.
She was said to have bought her forms on Monday afternoon and expressed her willingness to keenly contest.
The deputy communications director for the NDP, Ernest Owusu-Bempah, who spoke to DAILY GUIDE, was optimistic that Mrs. Rawlings would accept the call on her by the rank and file of the party and accept the challenge to lead the party into the 2012 elections.
By Charles Takyi-Boadu