Lens -- Nii Amasah Namaole, the NDC parliamentary candidate for the Dadekotopon constituency, has promised the people of his constituency selfless representation saying, "I am an individual like you and I believe with your support and advice we will work hard to ensure that Dadekoptopon gets the developments that it deserve."

Addressing a large crowd of NDC faithful at a rally at La in the Dadekotopon constituency of Accra last Monday, Nii Amasah also promised to fight for the restoration of all royalties and revenue due to the people from the La beach and fishing in the area.

Besides, he assured them of continuing the schorlaship package initiated by his predecessor and make sure that the poverty alleviation fund is properly disbursed for the benefit of all Ghanaians and not only card-bearing members of one party or the other.

Mr. Sly Mensah, former NDC Member of Parliament for the Dadekotopon constituency, urged the electorate to vote for the NDC in the 2004 elections because an NDC victory would be victory for the impoverished and suffering masses of this country.

Mr. Mensah advised NDC members to remain steadfast and work hard to ensure victory for the NDC in 2004 elections, assuring the electorate that when voted to power the NDC would not only bring honesty, dedication and transparency to governance but would also ensure that the suffering of the people this country under the Kufuor led administration is halted and the dignity of the Ghanaian restored.

He noted that the tenure of the Kufuor-led NPP government has amply proven that the NDC was, and continues to be a people-centred party that has the people's welfare at heart as opposed to the NPP, which has demonstrated by its policies and actions that it is more interested in posting impressive figures.

"Posting impressive figures is good, but we must ask ourselves at what cost were these figures achieved? We are not going to behave like the NPP did when they were in opposition and condemn the figures they present as cooked or unimpressive. But I want everybody to know that there is a social and economic cost to every policy that a government embarks upon," Mr. Mensah pointed out.

He noted that when the NPP government imposed a 300% increase on petrol prices, more than doubled electricity, water, and telephone tariffs, while maintaining the cash-and-carry policy in health-care delivery, it was demonstrating its insensitivity to the welfare of the ordinary people of this country. "You cannot operate a policy of cash-and-carry under these conditions. Having shifted all these economic burdens upon the people, the least the NPP government should have done was to ensure that the cash-and-carry policy was scrapped at the time it was introducing these increases, so as to take some of the burden off the ordinary people of this country," Mr. Mensah said.

"Sadly however," he noted, "not only has the NPP maintain the cash-and-carry under these conditions, but actually the cost of health-care delivery has also shot up beyond the reach of most ordinary Ghanaians. This largely has contributed to the proliferation of unverified herbal concoctions on the traditional medicine market, as people would rather resort to these unverified herbal concoctions than go to hospital when they know they cannot afford the cost. Traditional medicine is good, and there are very good ones on the market. But there are many, many of those medicines that are nothing but diseases being passed-off as traditional medicine just to make a quick buck. These are signs of the times."

Also present at the rally was Mariam Sinare, the NDC parliamentary candidate for the Ayawaso central, who in her speech exhorted the people to vote the NDC parliamentary candidate as well as Prof. Mills to power for better standard of living.

Mariam Sinare advised the electorate not to sell their voters' ID cards or their votes, "if somebody comes to you with money, my brothers and sisters, take the money, you need it more than that person, but make sure you vote according to your conscience, not by the influence of that money. No juju can work on you no curse can work on you, take the money and make use of it. But when you enter that small box on polling day, remember how you have been impoverished these last four, remember that the only party that has demonstrated its sensitivity to your welfare is the NDC, the Akatamanso, and don't hesitate in voting the NDC back to power."

She assured the electorate of an NDC victory in the 2004 elections, describing the parliamentary candidate for the constituency, Nii Amasah Namoale, as not only honest, young, dedicated and hard working, but a person vested with much knowledge and capable of delivering.