Nana Rawlings Begins Bid For Ghana Presidency.

 

The wife of Ghana's ex-leader Jerry Rawlings has launched a campaign to stand for president.

Nana Konadu Rawlings is challenging the incumbent John Atta Mills for his National Democratic Congress party's nomination ahead of polls in 2012.
Analysts say it shows divisions within the ruling NDC and a desire by Mr Rawlings to have greater influence.
Mr Rawlings seized power in military coups in 1979 and 1981, before serving as elected president from 1993 to 2001.
 The former first lady's challenge has caused quite a stir.
It is the first time since the return to democracy in 1992, when presidential two-term limits were introduced, that a sitting head of state has been challenged as party leader in the first term of office, he says.
But supporters of Mr and Mrs Rawlings say the Mills government has strayed too far from the principles of the NDC.
After collecting her nomination papers, Mrs Rawlings said it was "the beginning of taking the country Ghana back where it belongs".
President Atta Mills, who took office in January 2009, had served as vice-president to Mr Rawlings for four years.
The vote on the NDC's presidential ticket will be taken by an estimated 2,500 delegates at the party's congress in July.