Aspiring Members of Parliament meet electorate

Mamponteng (Ash), Aug. 29, GNA - A public forum on sustaining Ghana's democracy through youth empowerment was on Saturday held at Mamponteng in Ashanti for aspiring Members of Parliament in the Kwabre East constituency.

The forum dubbed, "Meet Your Aspiring MPs", was organised by the Centre for the Development of People (CEDEP) and Youth In Action for Development (YAD), both NGOs in Ashanti with the Catholic Fund for Overseas Development, United Kingdom as the main sponsors. Mr Augustine Yeboah-Debrah, National Democratic Congress (NDC) aspiring candidate, who was the first to speak, said when elected as MP, he would use all the available resources at his disposal to promote vocational and technical education.

He said he would also ensure that many avenues were opened to children of school-going age to have access to education and that brilliant children with poor background were awarded scholarship to continue their education.

Touching on health facilities, he said when voted into power, he would ensure that one of the many clinics and health centres in the constituency was upgraded and fully equipped to serve the remaining ones.

Mr Yeboah-Debrah indicated his interest in agriculture and said he would liaise with the District Assembly to provide affordable farming implements to encourage the youth to go into farming.

Mr Kofi Frimpong, aspiring MP for the New Patriotic Party (NPP), also spoke on improvement and development in educational, health, agriculture and employment and said he would work hard on those sectors to raise the living standards of the people.

He said when voted into Parliament, he would help to re-vitalise all the dormant School Management Committees (SMCs) and the Parent-Teacher Associations (PTAs) to support the teachers to provide quality teaching and learning in schools.

Mr Frimpong said he would also liaise with the police administration in the district to fight against armed robbery, smuggling and other anti-social activities in the constituency and also embark on education on HIV/AIDS.

"I will also work hard to develop and sustain the government's health insurance scheme in the constituency," he added. In a contribution, Mr William Yaw Asamoah, constituency chairman of the Convention People's Party (CPP), asked the people to vote for the Party to enable it continue to the good work of the late Dr Kwame Nkrumah, first President of Ghana.

Barima Akwasi Amankwaa, Assistant Programme Officer, CEDEP and Mr Vincent Frimpong-Manu, President of Youth In Action, commended the people for attending the programme and expressed the hope that they would continue to contribute their quota to develop and sustain democracy in the country.