The National Chairman of the New Patriotic Party, Mr Peter Mac Manu has endorsed the presidential fiat asking all minister-aspirants to resign or be sacked.

Speaking at a news conference in Accra on Monday, Mr. Mac Manu said the president did nothing wrong. He said he was only exercising his constitutional prerogative to hire and fire ministers which supersedes the constitution of the NPP.

The position of the NPP National Chairman is in sharp contrast with an earlier one articulated by the General Secretary of the party, Nana Ohene Ntow. The general secretary was reported in the state-owned newspaper the Daily Graphic to have said that the president should have consulted the party before issuing his fiat.

But the National Chairman of the NPP insists no one can fault the president.

“Our constitution is very clear that in any case when nominations are eventually opened, which hopefully will be in September any minister who files his nomination is supposed to have resigned. So what the president has done is trying to bring the constitutional arrangement a step closer…the national Constitution gives the president the prerogative to call for resignation and dismissal. So it is not new to me and new to the party,” he said.

On the selection of parliamentary candidates for the 2008 election, Mr. Mac Manu said the party will only hold primaries where there is disagreement over the option of consensus.

He said: “It can either be by consensus and where there are no consensus then you can go on to elect. It is different from imposition of candidates. At the end, it is not the primaries alone that we are looking at but the general elections because we want to win.”

The General Secretary, Nana Ohene Ntow told journalists the party has not yet decided on a filing fee for presidential aspirants.

The National Treasurer of the party said they have suggested ¢650 million to the steering committee of the party for consideration. A decision is expected in the next few weeks.

Meanwhile, the NPP has dismissed allegations that it is stock pilling arms and preparing a paramilitary unit to rig next year's general elections.

The General Secretary of the opposition National Democratic Congress, Mr Johnson Asiedu Nketia had alleged that the ruling party had imported arms to equip Community Protection Units with the intention of rigging the general elections.

But Nana Ntow said the accusations are false and baseless.

He noted: “Asiedu Nketia’s comment should be dismissed as ignorant and it is very highly regrettable that the general secretary of a party such as NDC should make such ignorant statement.”