NPP’s chances in 2016 very bright - Barbara Ayisi

Mrs. Barbara Asher Ayisi, winner of last Saturday’s National Patriotic Party’s (NPP) Parliamentary primaries in Cape Coast North, has said the party’s chances in next year’s General Elections were brighter, despite the current challenges confronting the party.

Mrs. Ayisi, who garnered 139 votes, out of the 383 votes to win the primaries, organized at the University of Cape Coast School of Medical Sciences Auditorium (UCCSMS), indicated that what was happening to the NPP was just a passing storm, and that it would not affect the party’s fortunes in the 2016 Elections in any way.

She admitted that challenges currently going on in the party were normal, just as any institution was bound to experience such problems, saying she was highly impressed about the matured nature in which the challenges in the party had been handled so far.

Mrs. Ayisi, a tutor at the Wesley Girls’ Senior High School in Cape Coast, had already fancied her chances of annexing the Parliamentary slot for her constituency in an earlier interaction with the Ghana News Agency (GNA), adding she had worked very hard at the grassroot level for NPP in various capacities to merit the victory.

She had, among others, been a Polling Station Executive, once Deputy Constituency Secretary and a former Government Appointee to the Cape Coast Metropolitan Assembly.

However, she was not happy about how Polling Station Executives had been sidelined in the party for many years, saying she would work in tandem with majority of the Executives, in order to empower them since they played significant roles during Elections.

In addition, her immediate concerns, she said, were to improve education, help reduce unemployment by creating employable opportunities for the youth, promote arts and culture, and also improve the living conditions for women, children and the aged within her constituency.

In her victory speech, Mrs. Ayisi congratulated her fellow contestants for offering her a stiff competition, and pledged to pull all of them and the entire supporters of NPP along to forge a common front to wrest power from the governing National Democratic Congress (NDC) and also win more seats for the NPP.

She called for calm, peace and unity within the party, especially leading to the 2016 Elections, since in her view, it was necessary to remain committed as one united front to save Ghanaians from the current economic hardships they were going through.

Her contenders included Dr. Mrs. Henrietta Abane, a lecturer at UCC, a two-time contestant who came second with 130 votes, Dr. David Wellington Essaw, also a lecturer at UCC, third with 92 votes and Mr. Philip Longdon, a Land Economist and Farmer, claiming the fourth position with 22 votes.

In all, 386 delegates voted, out of a total of 392, with three ballots cancelled for voters using mobile phones in the ballot box, against the Electoral Commission’s (EC) directives.

Mrs. Cecilia Acquah, Chairperson for the Cape Coast North NPP Constituency, commended the contestants and the sympathisers of the party for conducting themselves well during the elections, and urged them to vote massively for all NPP Parliamentary candidates, as well as Nana Akufo Addo, the party's flagbearer in the 2016 Elections.

There was heavy police presence at the venue to quell any violence or disturbances, with different ‘jama’ groups in attendance to entertain the crowd.