The Greater Accra Regional Minister and MP for Ayawaso Central, Sheik I.C. Quaye, has condemned critics of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) who have raised issues about the high number of aspirants vying for the party's flagbearership position, saying it goes to re-enforce the democratic tenets associated with the Danquah/Busia political tradition.

According to him, Ghana is a country with a strong democratic dispensation hence the need to allow people to express their political ambitions in their various political parties of which he said the ruling NPP is no exception.

Mr. I.C. Quaye said this in an exclusive interview with the Gye Nyame Concord at the Methodist University College of Ghana (MUCG) during a handing over ceremony of Tertiary Education Students Confederacy of NPP (TESCON) Executives.

He indicated that Ghana has come a long way to understand the real issues of democratic governance which, as he put it, is being perfectly executed by the NPP government under the leadership of President John Agyekum Kufuor.

"The NPP believes that anyone who consider himself/herself to have all the qualities required for the flagbearership should be given the due chance to exercise his/her political ambitions," he said, adding that "for all you know only one person will be elected for the presidential race in December when the NPP holds its delegates congress."

He pointed out that "more aspirants means a deep rooted Ghana's democratic governance."

The Minister acknowledged that MUCG has contributed its quota towards national development by producing disciplined and intellectually astute men and women who are capable of assuming the realms of leadership in Ghana’s democratic process.

He therefore urged all those criticising the NPP to rather cultivate the culture of democratic principles within their rank and file so as to ensure that the country's democratic process is entrenched for the good of all.

Mr. Quaye added that democracy was about power to the masses which he said also meant freedom of expression, the rule of law and the respect for the rights of all.

He said critics of the ruling government were afraid to contest the impeccable rule of law record that has been set by the Kufuor-led NPP government and so such detractors were-out to create unnecessary propaganda as if more aspirants in a race is a taboo.

Over 20 leading members of the NPP, including sitting ministers of the present government are aspiring to lead the party to contest the 2008 elections.

Leading the pack of ministers known to be interested in the position include the Minister of Defence, Hon. Dr. Kwame. Addo-Kufuor, Minister for Water Resources, Works and Housing, Hon. Hackman Owusu Agyemang, Minister for Foreign Affairs, Regional Integration and NEPAD, Hon. Nana Addo Danquah Akufo-Addo.

The rest include the Minister for Tourism and Diasporan Relations, Jake Otanka Obetsebi Lamptey, the Vice President, Alhaji Aliu Mahama among several others.

Gye Nyame Concord