The opposition National Democratic Congress has been challenged into an electoral popularity contest with the ruling New Patriotic Party to settle scientifically the debate over which party has more credibility with the people.
Addressing executive officers of the NPP at Tema over the weekend, Mr Jake Obetsebi-Lamptey Minister of Information and Presidential Affairs challenged the NDC to test their current popularity by getting their MPs to resign their seats to pave the way for by-elections in those constituencies. “By-elections the World over, especially during the mid-term of a government, are used to judge the performance of that government as the people se it.
It always more of a referendum on the sitting government”, he said. The Minister, who is also NPP Regional chairman for Greater Accra said that if after winning three by-elections, two previously held by NDC and the other by the NPP, the opposition party still doubts the popularity of the government and its policies, then it is incumbent of them to give the government the opportunity to establish its case. He referred to the recent statement by the NDC flagbearer, Prof. J.E.A. Mills that the NPP cannot win the 2004 General election because of the impossibility of bribing and intimidating the entire country, and said that with the mass resignation of NDC MPs, almost half of the country will have to go to the polls to either vindicate Prof. Mills position or otherwise.
Cataloguing some of the Achievements of the government, Mr Obetsebi-Lamptey said that the recent by-election victories in Bimbilla, Kumawu and Wulensi are “practical and popular votes of endorsement of the positive strides made by this government, two years into its four year mandate. He described the victories as the “barometers of public perception of government performance so far, since the people who voted were the direct beneficiaries, and therefore best judges of the style of our two-year old government, compared to the 20 year old record of our predecessor.”
The Minister conceded that not enough has been done to project the government’s achievements so far and assured that efforts were underway to address that problem. He referred to three books that have been published by his outfit on government achievements so far and said that this year would witness the publication of more of such books, the operation of the new government portal that would give continued access to events and developments at regional and district levels and the on going briefings of the nation by sector Ministers.
The Regional Chairman urged the executives to unite their strengths to ensure that constituencies in Tema team up to become a real powerhouse in the NPP to facilitate its victories in the years ahead.
