We Want to Launch Our Manifesto First

The opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) says the second postponement of the flag bearer’s appearance at a public forum to share his vision is because the party’s manifesto is “quite not ready”.
According to NPP Communications Director, Nana Akomea, the party had hoped that the manifesto would be ready before Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo takes his turn at the Evening Encounter on August 9 organised by the political think-tank, the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA).
But the IEA announced the anticipated encounter cannot come off for the second time running. A later date is to be communicated.
Nana Akufo-Addo was first scheduled for the IEA Evening Encounter on July 5. But without stating any reason, the IEA postponed the policy statement event.
Nana Akomea is explaining that the July 5 was postponed because the party wanted to launch its manifesto on August 4, 2016.
According to him, the “launch should precede the IEA encounter so Nana Akufo Addo will be able to speak to it at the IEA encounter”.
But Nana Akomea explained the manifesto needs to be “trimmed a little bit”. It may be cut off at least one-third of the document after taking it through a process of validation.
He said the party has “little more time” to consult experts to finish validating the document because it has now until December to outdoor its manifesto.
The highly anticipated move to bring the election date to November has failed, giving some more room for the party to work on the manifesto.
Rejecting claims that the presentation of the manifesto is long over-due, Nana Akomea reminded Ghanaians that prior to the 2012 elections, the Party launched its manifesto on August 29.
The governing National Democratic Congress (NDC) launched its manifesto later in October.
He also explained that although the Party is worried the governing NDC may steal its ideas, this is not the reason for missing the August 9 launch date.
He said a cure for manifesto stealing should rather be an early launch so it becomes abundantly clear which party proposed which vision.