Other than Jerry Rawlings and Atta-Mills the frontrunner for the NDC ticket is First Lady Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings whose political standing has been boosted by a cluster of well- financed extra-governmental (rather than non-governmental) organisations such as the 31 December Women's Movement (31 DWM) and the Verandah Boys (with its Nkrumaist echoes) organised by Faustina Nelson a Nana Konadu acolyte...
Also close to Nana Konadu is Sherry Ayittey the sister of the outspoken US-based political scientist and long-time Rawlings opponent George Ayittey...
Some NDC cadres suspect that Nana Konadu is constructing a parallel support network to back her candidacy at the coming party congress...
Winning support at constituency level is difficult for most Accra-based politicians; Nana Konadu's supporters reckon the 31 DWM and Verandah Boys will counter any antipathy towards her at the grassroots level...
Talk of Nana Konadu's candidacy has sparked resentment among party cadres (organisers of the Committees for the Defence of the Revolution) towards the NDC hierarchy...
Asamoah who last year had to explain how C100 million (US$40 000) came to be stolen by two policemen guarding his house is the hierarchy's key strategist and Nana Konadu's main political confidant...
NDC opinion is divided over Nana Konadu's candidacy...
Outside the party many believe the candidacy plan was floated found little support and has quietly been abandoned although New Patriotic Party activist Kwame Pianim has warned fellow oppositionists that they underestimate Nana Konadu at their peril...
Dynastic decisionsAccordingly Nana Konadu's references to the issue are subjected to rigorous textual analysis...
Some like former PNDC member Mary Grant loudly praise Nana Konadu's contribution to the women's movement...
Of these factions the NDC radicals are most opposed to a Nana Konadu candidacy while the Northern Region and Fante Confederation also share misgivings (prompted mainly by their wish to generate their own candidates)...
The weakness of Nana Konadu's NDC opponents is their lack of an alternative candidate or at least any one willing to put their head above the parapet (and risk the Castle's wrath)...
The flagbearer issue obsesses the NPP and the newspapers that support it; a clutch of candidates has already emerged ahead of the party's national congress due before the end of 1998:• John Kufour: Kumasi businessman; the NNP's dour representative in 1996; widely regarded as lacking the bite to take on either Nana Konadu or her husband; • Nana Akufo-Addo: Accra-based lawyer whose father was President in 1969-72; this might tell against him in the dynasty argument; looks the most dynamic and imaginative of the contenders; • Kofi Apraku: parliamentary finance spokesman cerebral but questions have been raised about his ability to cope with the political rough stuff; • Malik Alhassan Yakubu: MP for Yendi and a leader in the North; would have a strong case for getting on the NPP ticket to break its image as an elitist conservative alliance for the cities; • Agyare Koi Larbi: member of parliament Akropong; lawyer; leads a Young Turks group in party; argues party must concentrate on grassroots organisation...
Instead hopeful voices speak of a major rift in the NDC over Nana Konadu's candidacy which will send the ruling party' s Nkrumaists back to their political roots...
