The former General Secretary of the Convention People’s Party (CPP), Ivor Greenstreet has been elected as the flagbearer of the party for the general elections in November.
In what was a surprising outcome from Saturday’s National Delegates’ Congress, Greenstreet fended off competition from Samia Nkrumah, daughter of Ghana’s first president, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah who had been widely tipped to emerge victorious.
Certified results reveal that Greenstreet polled well over half of the 1,992 valid votes cast. His tally of 1,288 votes representing 64.7% saw him easily beat Samia’s total of 578 representing about 29%.
Joseph Agyapong and Bright Akwetey polled less than 10% of the votes combined, picking up 82 and 44 votes respectively.
Saturday’s congress saw over two thousand four hundred (2,400) delegates converge on the Accra International Trade Fair Centre which was decked out in the colours of the CPP.
Despite an attempt by a failed aspirant, Onsy Nkrumah who filed a writ, to prevent the congress from taking place, the event went ahead as planned with voting commencing at 2 pm.
The election of Greenstreet, could represent a new beginning for the CPP who have, over the last few elections, seen their figures at the polls dwindle significantly.
Talks of a merger with the PNC seemed to have stalled with both parties having elected representatives for the November elections while the CPP has rejected calls from the New Patriotic Party (NPP) for an alliance between the two parties.
At a debate organised by the party days before the congress, Greenstreet stated that he was the best person to unite the party ahead of the polls in order for Ghana’s founding party to usurp the dominance of the NPP and the governing National Democratic Congress (NDC).
The party has been criticised for failing to maintain a united front in recent times.
CPP’s two previous presidential candidates in the 2008 and 2012 elections have since left; Papa Kwesi Nduom to form the Progressive People’s Party (PPP) and more recently Dr. Abu Sakara, who resigned over what he described as a “personality cult club being built around the ambition of an individual.”
By: Edwin Kwakofi/citifmonline.com/Ghana
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