CPP elects Ivor Greenstreet as flagbearer
The former Convention People’s Party general secretary becomes the party’s candidate for the presidency twice in a row but the CPP changes its other top brass
The Convention People’s Party has elected Ivor Kobina Greenstreet as its candidate for the 7 December presidential election.
The former CPP general secretary beat his rivals for the position – Bright Oblitei Akwetey (a four-times contestant for the nomination) and a new entrant Reverend Dr Divine Ayivor – by a landslide margin to become the flagbearer.
Saturday’s party congress, which was decentralised to accommodate the risks posed by the novel coronavirus, also saw Hajia Hamdatu, the acting national chairman of the party, lose her position to Nana Frimpomaa Sarpong Kumankuma, a candidate for the vice-presidential nomination in the 2012 election.
New crop takes over
The acting general secretary, James Kwabena Bomfeh, similarly lost his seat to a new entrant, Nana Yaa Jantuah, a former director of corporate affairs at the Public Utilities and Regulatory Comission (PURC).
The national organiser’s position was won by Moses Yirimanbo and Osei Kofi Acquah emerged as the party’s national youth organiser, with the treasurer’s position going to Emmanuel Opare Addo.
The party however retained its national women’s organiser, Hajia Aisha Sulley Futa, and its three vice-chairmen were re-elected unopposed, but with their relative positions rearranged: Emmanuel Ogbojor becomes first vice-chairman, Onsy Kwame Nkrumah second vice-chairman and John Benjamin Davids third vice-chairman.
The contest was generally described as free, fair and orderly.
A member of the party who spoke to Asaase Radio, Joseph Kwadwo Afari Yeboah, said that with the exception of the flagbearer, the entire top leadership has been changed and the party has a new crop of leaders.
The CPP hopes to win one million votes in the December presidential election so that it can force the poll to a run-off.
Afari Yeboah expressed the hope that the new leaders will turn around the CPP’s fortunes for good.
The Convention People’s Party is a socialist political party in Ghana which takes its lead from the ideas of the first president of Ghana, Kwame Nkrumah. The party was formed in June 1949 after Kwame Nkrumah broke away from the pioneering postwar pro-independence United Gold Coast Convention (UGCC).
Fred Dzakpata
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