NDC development projects unequalled — President Mahama
President John Mahama has stated that the development track record of National Democratic Congress (NDC) government is unequalled and it will bring the NDC back to power via 2016 general election.
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He, however, reminded members of the party that they would first of all have to successfully come out of the forthcoming NDC presidential and parliamentary primaries slated for November 21, 2015 more united than ever before.
Addressing NDC party executives and teeming supporters at the Bolgatanga Girls Senior High School on Thursday, the President said the NDC's track record in the education, health, roads, electricity and other sectors was enough to prove to Ghanaians that the party was development-oriented.
The interaction formed part of his two-day tour of the region and the Changing Lives Forum. It was also to enable the President to seek the approval of party members at the grass roots as the NDC prepares for the presidential and parliamentary primaries.
According to the President, the NDC government is an organised, modern and the most appealing political party in Ghana.
"The forthcoming primary is a family contest and all of us must come together because only one person can be elected. I am also telling you that this is an election before the main election," he said and thanked residents of the Upper East Region for the warm reception accorded him during his visit.
"I urge you to once again give me your mandate to lead you into the 2016 general election," he stressed.
Database
President Mahama said the NDC had been developing a modern database for the past two years in order to have a "valuable data on universal membership suffrage" to replace the "malaise we had using the electoral college system."
He further indicated that in the last elections, the NDC lost 22 seats and so the new changes were to correct the mistakes of the past.
The President stated that regarding the Biometric registration, the Upper East Region had registered about 153,000 members.
He further said the fortunes of the party in the region had been growing from one election to another, saying that "it started growing from 66.4 per cent in 2012 and by 2016, the region would vote massively for the NDC.”
Youth unemployment
According to him, under the Youth Employment Agency Bill, the government would roll out a programme that would employ 100,000 young people next year and that the youth in the Upper East Region would also benefit from it.
He said out of the 200 community day senior high schools earmarked for the country, 123 of them were currently being constructed.
NDC register
The General Secretary of the NDC, Johnson Asiedu Nketia (aka General Mosquito) said out of 275 constituencies, 248 had agreed on the integrity of the provisional voters register. He said there were problems with 27 constituency registers arising out of misunderstanding of procedures, which would be addressed in due course.
He cautioned party members against using the inclusion forms to register fresh members since that could not allow them to vote. They should also avoid going on radio stations to complain about the provisional register.
Mr Asiedu Nketia said the exhibition of the NDC provisional register was to enable the party members to pin-point all the problems they had identified with the register in the hope of correcting them.
He urged the party members to come out and vote massively in the forthcoming presidential and parliamentary primaries, saying "we want you to demonstrate that you have a President who can lead us to victory in 2016."
He further entreated parliamentary aspirants not to attack their opponents as it was an internal contest, and those attacks might arm their political opponents to use them against the NDC in the 2016 general election.