NDC to win one million votes in Ashanti
Party executives of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) in the Ashanti Region have mapped out a strategy to win as many as a million votes in the region.
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This will make victory in the 2016 general election a certainty for the NDC, a former Deputy Ashanti Regional Minister, Mr Samuel Yaw Adusei, has disclosed.
In an interview, he told the Daily Graphic that “ ironically, the Ashanti Regional Chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Mr Bernard Antwi Boasiako, formed part of their grand strategy to win such massive votes.”
Trumpcard
He, however, refused to explain how the NDC executive would use a prominent member of a rival party to win such votes in the region, and added that keeping it a secret was their trump card.
According to Mr Adusei, a thank-you tour initiated by President John Dramani Mahama in the region last year, where he expressed the desire of increasing their fortunes in the region in the next election, ignited their dreams to design the Operation One Million Votes strategy.
Giving statistics to buttress his point, he said in the 2008 election, the NDC succeeded in winning over 400, 000 votes in the Ashanti Region, considered the stronghold of the opposition NPP, and in the 2012 general election, they increased their votes in the region to 612,000 votes.
Inroads
“You can see that progressively, we are making inroads into an area considered to be a stronghold of our archrivals. That is why we are working harder than ever to win a million votes in 2016, but unfortunately, the Regional Chairman of the NPP, Bernard Antwi Boasiako, is part of our strategy to win such massive votes to make victory a certainty for the NDC,” he said.
According to Mr Adusei, winning the million votes also hinged on the NDC maintaining President Mahama as the flag bearer and his selection of Paa Kwesi Amissah-Arthur as his running mate.
Winning team
“We have to maintain the winning team, just as the NPP has maintained their losing team, and if this is done, we are likely to increase our fortunes from 612,000 votes in the Ashanti region to over a million votes” he assured.
Anti-Ashanti perceptions
He debunked the perception that the NDC was anti-Ashanti and had ignored the region in terms of development projects and mentioned the Komfo Anokye-Sofoline Interchange, a three-year project started in 2007 and being completed by the NDC and the Mother and Child Project at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH), a 1,000-bed facility supposed to reduce massive congestion at the labour ward, which has stalled in spite of the annual budgetary allocations. He said the Capitation of the National Health Insurance which is supposed to be a pilot project in the region in 2012 was now an albatross hanging on the neck of residents in the region and undermining quality healthcare delivery; that not a single block had been laid at the site at Sewuah where a sod -cutting ceremony was performed to develop a regional hospital to reduce massive congestion at the KATH, and that the power outages in the Ashanti Region were more rampant than any other part of the country, among others, but maintained that winning over one million votes could not be a pipe dream and that any such perceptions were misplaced.
he said efforts were being made to complete the Sofoline Interchange Project to enhance smooth movement of vehicles on that corridor. He said contrary to the perception that the Ashanti Region lacked quality roads, records indicated that it was the region that had seen more expansion of road networks in the country.He also indicated that the Urban Roads was currently adding 50 kilometres to the road infrastructure in the Kumasi Metropolis to reduce vehicular congestion in parts of the metropolis.
On the rampant power outages in the region, he said it was nationwide and would soon be addressed. He said the renovation of the shoe factory at Atonsu Agogo to offer employment to the youth and support to rice farmers to expand their farms were part of the initiatives of the government to reduce the cost of living among the benefactors.
He, however, did not comment on the capitation of the health insurance piloted in the region four years ago, which is yet to be extended nationwide.
“Over the years ,the government has done a lot to win the support of residents in the region, so we are certain that our strategy to win the million votes is on course, “he said.