MR.SYLVESTER MENSAH FOR VICE PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF GHANA?

Information available to Kapital news has it that Chief Executive Officer of the National Health Insurance Authority; Sylvester A. Mensah is to become Ghana’s next Vice President. He would also be the running mate to the party’s flagbearer President John Mahama for the 2012 election. President Mahama is expected to present his name to parliament as Vice President over the next five months for scrutiny and approval. Signals form the corridors of power picked by Kapital news indicates that President John Mahama in consultation with leading party executives has finally settled Sylvester Mensah as Vice President. Under Ghana’s 1992 Constitution, the Vice President who is sworn in as President by Parliament following the death of a President is to nominate a candidate to be endorsed by Parliament as Vice President. Several names have been speculated as possible candidates including Trades Minister Hannah Tetteh, Chairman of the National Development Planning Commission PV Obeng, Ghana’s longest serving former Finance Minister Kwesi Botchwey and former NDC Flagbearer-Aspirant Ekwow Spio Garbrah. But our sources at the Castle have hinted that Sylvester Mensah has been settled on as a compromise candidate.

Meanwhile, Deputy Majority Leader Rashid Pelpuo tells Kapital news, parliament is yet to decide on how the house would go about the approval processes for the new vice president, when President John Mahama submits the name to the house. Government is meanwhile directing that all persons observe a minute’s silence today at 2:15pm in honour of the late president. Today marks exactly one week since President Atta Mills passed away. A statement from government indicated that wherever people find themselves throughout Ghana today at 2:15pm, they are to observe a minute’s silence and also say a prayer for the soul of President Atta Mills who worked selflessly towards bettering the lives of Ghanaians. Residents of the Kumasi Metropolis are expected to gather at the Prempeh Assembly Hall and the Jubilee Park to mark the one week celebration of the death of President John Mills. President John Mahama has directed various regional ministers and district chief executives to organize programmes simultaneously to mark the seventh day of the demise of President John Mills. A member of the one week celebration planning committee set up by the Ashanti regional coordinating council here in Kumasi, Kaba Abraham spoke to Adams Issaka of our news desk on the plans for the celebration in Kumasi today. Meanwhile, some residents in the Kumasi Metropolis have been speaking to Kapital News on how they intend marking the one week celebration of the late president today.