Residents of Sabon Zongo threaten to boycott polls
Residents of Sabon Zongo, a suburb of Agona Swedru, have threatened to boycott the upcoming December elections due to certain unfulfilled promises made to them by government.
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The about 1,200 eligible voters from two polling stations within the community have decided not to vote for any political party, particularly the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC).
The resolve of the residents to boycott the elections is borne out of unfulfilled promises of relief items and developmental projects promised them by the government and the Agona West Municipal Assembly.
Addressing a news conference, Shuaib Issah, the leader of the youth, said after the Sunday, June 20, 2012 flood that heavily hit Swedru, which destroyed the entire community, government as well as the Municipal Assembly promised to put life back to normalcy for the residents.
The flood, described as the worst experience ever in Swedru, washed away almost all the buildings in the community, leaving some few buildings and the mosque. Consequently, all residents lost their personal belongings, tools and cash.
According to him, after that tragic incident, the Zongo Disaster Committee wrote several letters, held meetings and promises were made to them by two former Municipal Chief Executives for Agona West, Mr Obeng Forson and Mr Emmanuel Kweku Tetteh and even the current MCE, Mr Samuel Oppong, which have not yielded any positive results.
He said the community was fed up with vague promises and therefore advised leadership of political parties not to waste their time to visit the community to engage in any political activity, let alone promise them anything.
“If you (politicians) will come and make another promise even though you have not fulfilled previous promises, then it will be better you don’t come at all,” he stressed.
He noted further that the decision not to vote in the upcoming election was as a result of a meeting held between their Chief, Shuaib Bawa, the elders and the youth in the community.
He explained that the entire community was unhappy due to the deplorable state of the area, since government’s promise of a drainage system, building materials to help individual landlords to rebuild their houses, building an Arabic School and payment of GH¢27000 as lease for the land on which the community is situated had not been fulfilled.
The youth leader indicated that they were using the platform to draw the attention of government, to as a matter of urgency come to their aid, else the entire community which is a stronghold of the NDC would not vote in the elections.
Shuaib Issah made a passionate appeal to President John Dramani Mahama to come and support them to make life better for the residents.
Story by Gilbert Mawuli Agbey