NPP blames security personnel for poor performance in Volta Region

Mr James Dogbe, Volta Regional Chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), on Tuesday blamed the party's poor performance in last Thursday's elections, on the arrest of its polling agents in parts of the region. He told the Ghana News Agency in a telephone interview that the arrest of the party's agents, suspected of being "macho men" at Ho and Akatsi intimidated its supporters and prevented them from voting.

"I am surprised the voting trend remained almost the same. We could have done better than the marginal gains recorded if it had not been for the fact that the security personnel arrested our agents and sent them to Accra," Mr Dogbe said. He said the thrust of the party's message for the region in the presidential run-off would be for the people to change the trend of voting which has always supported the NDC.

Mr Dogbe said: "We will tell them the NPP has the majority in parliament and it will be a mistake for them to vote for Professor Mills". He said the party anticipates that the NDC would descend on the region to mobilise people who did not vote in the last election to vote for the party in the run-off, "But we shall counter it by also mobilising the people to vote for the NPP to complete the process of positive change which most of the country has embraced. We will be vigilant to ensure that only the right thing is done," Mr. Dogbe said.