Osafo-Marfo returned unopposed

Akim Oda, July 30, GNA - The Minister of Finance and Economic Planning, Mr Yaw Osafo-Maafo was on Friday returned unopposed as the New Patriotic Party (NPP) Parliamentary Candidate for Akim Oda at the Constituency's Primaries at Akim Oda.

He was the sole candidate in the election and was endorsed by popular acclamation by the 109 Polling Station Chairmen forming the Electoral College and supervised by personnel of the Electoral Commission (EC).

Mr Osafo-Maafo thanked the people for the confidence reposed in him and pledged to prove equal to the task.

He urged the electorate to compare the achievements of the NPP within the three-and-a-half years to the almost 20 years of the Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC) and National Democratic Congress (NDC) under Former President Jerry John Rawlings and renew the NPP Government's mandate.

Mr Osafo-Maafo told the people that he would do his best to accelerate development to help raise their standard of living. He said the nation benefited greatly when it opted for the Highly Indebted Poor Country (HIPC) Initiative and stated that most of the country's debts were now written off.

The Eastern Regional Chairman, Nana Kofi Adi Ankama said the NPP was poised to win all the 28 seats in the Region but called for hard work from the Party's activists.

The General Secretary, Mr Dan Botwe urged Polling Station Executives of NPP to work hard to enable the it win both the presidential and parliamentary polls in the constituency with a wider margin.

He said the NPP would not need to rig Election 2004 before becoming victorious in the polls and appealed to other political parties to abide by the code of conduct for political parties to ensure an incident-free election.

The Eastern Regional Minister, Dr Francis Osafo-Mensah urged the Party's activists to intensify their campaigns in the rural communities to be able to counteract the negative propaganda being peddled by opponents of the Party.

Nine NDC supporters at Atiankama Nkwanta, who had defected from to join NPP, were later introduced to the enthusiastic crowd.