Political turf in Volta has changed - NPP

The issues interplaying to influence the voting behaviour of electorate in the Volta Region in the forthcoming general election have gone beyond the commonplace sentimental attachments of the residents.

Makafui Kofi Woanya, New Patriotic Party (NPP) Volta Regional Organizer, in an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA) on Tuesday said, it was no longer a game as usual for the National Democratic Congresses (NDC) to use unscientific reasons to whip up sentiments against the NPP, as they (NDC) had real questions to answer.

He said the NDC was on the political turf, trumpeting its attachment to the people and infrastructural development of the area, which the NPP was countering with a direct message of economic empowerment through jobs to raise the living standards of the people.

Mr Woanya said the NPP was coming into the political picture in the Volta Region more strongly than before, trying hard to resurrect historically linkages of the people there with its (NPP) political and ideological tradition.

He said some people were simply “coming back to roots,” while others were “looking around themselves, things going on and their personal circumstances to form political opinions”.

Mr Woanya said the roads, school blocks, airports and other jobs being hyped by the NDC were of importance only to the “politico-contractors” who got the jobs, because of the excessive profits it brought them and their sponsors and not for the good of the people.

He said the airport project in Ho, for example, would be of remote value for the majority of the people in the Region, whose daily preoccupation was how to put food on the table.

Mr Woanya said if the NPP was brought back to power, it would harness the physical features of the beaches into worthwhile businesses, integrated with other business opportunities in the hinterland to involve many other people.

He said the job of the NPP campaign machinery in the Volta Region was to counter the lies being peddled about the Party and its flag bearer.

Mr Woanya said the recent welcome accorded Nana Addo-Dankwa Akufo-Addo, Flag-bearer of the NPP, which had left the NDC panicking, was an indication “times have changed”.

He dismissed the NDC ‘agenda gap one million votes’ in the Volta Region as “having no foundation”.

Mr Woanya said the charisma of late President John Mills and the sympathy on which President Mahama rode to victory in 2012 had waned, battered by his poor performance.

He said Volta might not fall from the hands of the NDC but the fact was the NPP would make “incursions” and get more votes.

Mr Woanya said, “We know their tricks and accordingly would adopt ways to curb them, using very committed Party Agents on polling day”.