I would move to orphan Constituencies to capture more votes for NPP -Atasige

Bolgatanga, Dec. 21, GNA - Mr. Isaac Atasige, a 38-year-old Quantity Surveyor who has filed to contest for the Second Vice Chairmanship position of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) in the Upper East Region, has stated that he would move to all the orphan constituencies in the Region to win more votes for the party to capture power in the 2012 polls.

Speaking to the Ghana News Agency in Bolgatanga after filing his papers, he indicated that there were a lot of Orphan Constituencies which needed to be worked on to get more members into the party. He expressed concern about the inability of the party to capture many seats in previous elections and indicated that he had worked at many grassroots levels of the party in the Region and knows how he would play his game to ensure that the party wins more seats if not all the 13 seats in the Region.

"I would not be an arm-chair second Vice Chairman, I would move from constituency to constituency," adding that he had done it before when he worked on the campaign team which led to the party capturing the China -Paga Constituency in the Region from the NDC during the 2008 elections. He noted that one of the major factors that led to the party not winning the last election was that the campaign teams did not do much at the grassroots level by going into the hinterlands to campaign, which he would help address at the Regional level when given the nod. Mr. Atasige noted that one of the major roles he would play as the Second Vice Chairman would be to liaise with the Regional and National Executives, elders of the party and members at the grassroots level to enhance harmonious relationships among the party's rank and file for the purpose of victory.

He noted that there was the need for much attention to be given to party structures at the grassroots level since that was the area where more followers would be captured for the party. "This is where I would be working together with the party executives and the campaign teams". He pointed out that if the NPP was to win the election, it needed a leadership that was competent, dynamic, and energetic to move into the hinterlands to do serious campaigning which he said he had the zeal and strength to do. Mr. Atasige said he was once a leading member of the Tertiary Students Confederation of the New Patriotic Party (TESCOM) when he was a student at the Kumasi Polytechnic in 1997, and said he was able together with other leading members to campaign to win more people into the party which led to the party's victory in001 the 2000 general election. 21 Dec. 09