NPP is confident of winning KEEA seat- Duncan

Cape Coast, Sept 20, GNA - The Central Regional Secretary of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Mr Kwamena Duncan, on Thursday has said the party was confident it would win the Komenda-Edina-Eguafo-Abrem (KEEA) constituency parliamentary seat in Election 2008. "KEEA is more than ripe for us", he said.

He told the GNA in an interview that the achievements of the party's aspiring candidate, Nana Ato Arthur, the Regional Minister, and the government were enough to ensure the party winning the seat. Dr Paa Kwesi Nduom is the Convention People's Party Member of Parliament for the constituency and is seeking to be elected as the party's presidential candidate.

Mr Duncan said Nana Arthur had brought a lot of projects to the area, first as a District Chief Executive and now as the regional minister.

He said the government, unlike the preceding ones, has been able to eliminate the "headache" faced by the fishing community in Elmina by dredging the Benya Lagoon.

He said the people's satisfact ion with the achievements of Nana Arthur became evident when two traditional areas in the constituency installed him 'Sompahene' in recognition of his good works. He said the regional executive would, "in the next few days, confer with the national executive to acclaim Nana Arthur as the party's candidate for the area since he was the only one who had filed his nomination.

Mr Duncan said since the NDC had already elected its candidate, "the wisdom now is that we should quickly acclaim our candidate". He said "it would be dangerous" for the party to stick to the arrangement not to campaign in areas being held by opposition members of parliament who collaborated with the majority in parliament until June next year.

Mr Duncan said it was necessary for the party to begin its campaign in the KEEA now "because the person for whom this has been made wants to be his party's presidential candidate", in reference to Dr Nduom. He said the "ground looked fertile" for the NPP in the region not only in retaining its 16 seats, but also the remaining three constituencies, KEAA, Atti-Morkwaa and Mfantseman-East.

On the election of delegates for the party's national congress slated for December, Mr Duncan said the regional secretariat was waiting for a directive from the national headquarters to begin the elections. He said the region was expected to send 190 delegates, 10 from each of the 19 constituencies and a representative of the 'founding fathers' in the region.

Mr Duncan suggested that the directive to elect the delegates should come close to the date of the congress to ensure that the presidential aspirants focus their campaign on the entire membership and not just concentrating on winning the support of the delegates. He said concentrating their campaign on the delegates would not be good for party organization and unity. "We must have a strong united spirit, so anything that will add to party disillusionment or discontentment should be avoided", Dr Duncan said. GNA