C/R NDC, NPP gearing up to ensure win for presidential candidates

Cape Coast, Dec.10, GNA- The executives of the Central Regional branches of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the New Patriotic Party (NPP) said on Wednesday that they would work hard to canvass for more votes for their respective presidential candidates in the run-off on December 28.

Members of the two parties expressed their determination in an interview with the GNA in Cape Coast, shortly after the results of Sunday's presidential election had been released and the need for the run-off announced.

Mr Kwamina Duncan, regional secretary of the NPP, observed that the outcome of the results was an indication, that between Professor John Evans Atta Mills and Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, Ghanaians had given their approval for Nana Akufo-Addo, "even though it is not complete". He said as a result, he could not foresee, how the results of the run-off could be any different, and said to ensure a resounding win for their candidate, the regional branch had already began to formulate strategies to win more votes in the region, particularly in the eight constituencies that it lost to the NDC.

On the party's heavy losses along the coastal belt of the country, Mr Duncan said there might have been other "extraneous factors" that led to its defeat, such as the inability of the government to tackle the fishermen's concerns about pair trawling and distribution of pre-mix oil. According to him, these were matters that could not have been tackled at the party level and that it was for the government to have taken these concerns seriously, adding that, the party's defeat in those areas must have been the fishermen's way of "registering their protest". On the general conduct of the election, the NPP regional secretary, commended people in the region for voting peacefully, the NDC for winning in the 11 of the 19 constituencies and the regional election security taskforce and the media, for discharging their duties efficiently.

For his part, the regional NDC chairman, Mr Sam Valis Akyianu, was optimistic that Prof. Mills would win the run-off, saying that would be more appropriate, since the party would now have the largest number of parliamentarians. He also said the regional executive was going to intensify its campaign, especially in the remaining eight constituencies retained by the NPP, to convince people to vote for Prof. Mills.

Speaking to some residents of the township about their views for the run-off, some of them said they would want Nana Akufo-Addo to win, while others said they wanted a change and would rather want Prof Mills to win. People who spoke in favour of a win for Prof. Mills, seemed to be happy about the outcome of the results, but supporters of the NPP were surprised and unhappy about the outcome.

However, other people the GNA spoke to complained about the run-off, saying it was going to affect them financially, since they had to travel to as far as to Kumasi to cast their votes in Sunday's election. Meanwhile, the township is calm with people going about their normal duties. During Sunday's elections, the NDC which hitherto had two seats in parliament wrested eight of the 16 held by the NPP.