{"id":9277,"date":"2023-09-26T13:07:11","date_gmt":"2023-09-26T13:07:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/?p=9277"},"modified":"2023-09-26T13:07:11","modified_gmt":"2023-09-26T13:07:11","slug":"ghana-ex-trade-minister-quits-ruling-party-to-run-for-president","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/9277\/ghana-ex-trade-minister-quits-ruling-party-to-run-for-president\/","title":{"rendered":"Ghana ex-trade minister quits ruling party to run for president"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ghana’s former trade minister said on Monday he would resign from the ruling party and run as an independent candidate during the next presidential election in December 2024, dividing a government faced with dwindling support as it grapples with the worst\u00a0economic crisis\u00a0in a generation.<\/p>\n

Alan Kyeremanten, who has served twice as trade minister for the New Patriotic Party (NPP), made the announcement at a briefing and said his contributions were not appreciated. He had already resigned from his ministerial role in January.<\/p>\n

“The new movement will be led and powered by the youth,” he told his supporters at the event.<\/p>\n

“The (NPP) party has been hijacked by a selected group of party leaders and elders,” he said.<\/p>\n

The NPP described Kyeremanten’s resignation as “unfortunate” in a statement.<\/p>\n

Hundreds of demonstrators gathered in the Accra last week for three days of anti-government protests linked to economic hardship.<\/p>\n

Gold-, oil- and cocoa-producing Ghana’s worst economic crisis in a generation was brought on by spiralling public debt.<\/p>\n

Last year, protests over soaring prices and other economic challenges led to clashes with police and pushed authorities to ask the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for help.<\/p>\n

The government has since focused on restructuring debt and reducing its spending to gain access to a $3 billion, three-year IMF loan programme.<\/p>\n

But detractors said authorities have done too little to help those struggling to make ends meet as economic growth slows.<\/p>\n

The NPP has yet to name its candidate to succeed President Nana Afuko-Addo, who will step down after serving two terms.<\/p>\n

Kyeremanten had already withdrawn from an internal contest in November to elect the party’s candidate over allegations of irregularities in the selection process.<\/p>\n

It is widely believed that Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia will be put forward.<\/p>\n

Ghana<\/a> has been ruled by two parties since it transitioned from military to democratic rule in 1992 – the NPP and the main opposition National Democratic Congress party.<\/p>\n

Kyeremanten, 67, served as Akufo-Addo’s trade and industry minister during both of his terms.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ghana’s former trade minister said on Monday he would resign from the ruling party and run as an independent candidate during the next presidential election in December 2024, dividing a government faced with dwindling support as it grapples with the worst\u00a0economic crisis\u00a0in a generation. Alan Kyeremanten, who has served twice as trade minister for the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9278,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":0,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"source_name":"Reuters","source_url":"","via_name":"","via_url":"","override_template":"0","override":[{"template":"1","single_blog_custom":"","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_share_counter":"0","show_view_counter":"0","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"0","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"0","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"0","show_popup_post":"0","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"1"}],"override_image_size":"0","image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post":"0","trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post":"0","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","sponsored_post_name":"","sponsored_post_url":"","sponsored_post_logo_enable":"0","sponsored_post_logo":"","sponsored_post_desc":"","disable_ad":"0"},"jnews_primary_category":{"id":"","hide":""},"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"override_view_counter":"0","view_counter_number":"0","override_share_counter":"0","share_counter_number":"0","override_like_counter":"0","like_counter_number":"0","override_dislike_counter":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[32,27],"tags":[1496,158,1497],"class_list":["post-9277","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-economy","category-west-africa","tag-alan-kyeremanten","tag-ghana","tag-ghana-economy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9277","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9277"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9277\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9278"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9277"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9277"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9277"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}