The Upper West Regional branches of the People's National Convention (PNC) and the Convention People's Party (CPP) are to field common candidates in the various constituencies in the region for this year's parliamentary elections. This was to serve as a first step towards the reconciliation and the unification process of the two political parties at the regional level. Addressing a press conference in Wa, a social anthropologist and member of the Kwame Nkrumah Forum, based in the United Kingdom, Dr Francis Dakora, said both the PNC and the CPP were one family and wanted to address pertinent issues affecting them. He said the parties in the Upper West Region did not see themselves as different parties, but one Nkrumaist group which did not intend to compete with each other in the constituencies. The press conference was attended by the regional executives of the two parties. Dr Dakora, who was the facilitator, said the PNC and the CPP would not be allowed to stand alone in the Upper West Region as the people on the ground were tired of waiting for the hierarchy of the two parties to unite. "People on the ground are already united, and we will work as one body towards this year's election in the Upper West Region," he added. He described the PNC as a truly Nkrumaist party and not a tribal one, pointing out that for ex-president Dr Hilla Limann to go to Nkroful in the Western Region to pick up the coconut as a symbol for the PNC showed that the PNC was not an ethnic party. He stressed the need for compromises from both the Nkrumaist parties, since "we cannot sit down for people to thwart the genuine process of reconciliation and unity". For his part, the General Secretary of the PNC, Mr Bernard Mornah, observed that considering the situation in the Upper West Region, the two parties wanted to select candidates in constituencies where each of the parties was stronger. He was happy that the executives of the parties in the region were responding to the cries of the people. The Regional Chairman of the CPP, Mr Abu Mumuni, urged both parties to abide by the motto: "Forward Ever, Back¬ward Never" and unite to pursue the Nkrumaist ideology. A National Vice-Chairman of the PNC, Dr Edward Gyader, also appealed to other regional branches of the parties to follow the examples of the Upper West Region. Other speakers at the press conference were the Regional Secretary of the CPP, Mr Gado Mohammed, and the Regional Chairman of the PNC, Dr D. Baigne. Source: Daily Graphic