Tepa NDC in Tough Times

Not only is the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) getting weaker and weaker in the Ahafo Ano-North constituency, but the party is presently also grappling with the problem of securing a credible Parliamentary candidate for the 2004 general elections.

Barely six weeks after opening nominations, the party is yet to get a single nominations filed for the parliamentary seat next year.

Though nominations have not yet closed, party executives and activists are left wondering whether the NDC can battle it out with the ruling NPP at the next elections.

The inability of the party to have a candidate for next year's parliamentary elections has also come as a great surprise to many party activists, considering the fact that the constituencies used to be one of the three seemingly strong-holds of the NDC in the Ashanti region.

The NDC won the seat in both the 1992 and 1996 general elections and lost marginally to the ruling NPP in the 2000 general elections.

Mr. Annor Baffour, who won the seat in 1996 for the NDC but lost it by a slight margin to the NPP's Hon Kwame Owusu Frimpong in the 2000 elections, was the one considered by many as the potential candidate for the next elections.

Contacts with party executives in the constituency, have, however, established that the former MP is presently out of the country and has since not shown interest in the impending elections.

Few others who had their ambitions to contest on NDC's ticket in the 2000 elections dashed as a result of the imposition of Mr. Annor Baffour by the then National Executives of the NDC as the party's candidate have also not shown any interest this time round.

Other people who were considered as viable candidates for the party have in an interview with this reporter stated that they cannot afford the ?5 million being demanded as nomination fee for parliamentary aspirants.

Contacts with other party functionaries of the party reveal that the nomination fee is considered quite colossal against the backdrop of the sinking popularity of the party in the once stronghold of the party in the NPP-dominated Ashanti Region.

Further enquiries and contacts at some branches of the party have it that the Betiako, Abonsua, Anyinasuso and other branches at Tepa, the constituency capital, have no substantive executives.

Mr. Emmanuel Awuah, the constituency organizer of the NDC, has, however, maintained in an interview with Chronicle that the party will do everything possible to recapture the seat from the NPP in the 2004 elections.

He gave the assurance that the party will secure a viable parliamentary candidate before the close of nominations, saying "The problem of getting a parliamentary candidate for now will not compel the party to make a wrong choice."