Koforidua, Sept. 10, GNA - The running mate of the flag bearer of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Mr John Dramani Mahama, has called on Ghanaians to vote for a change of government in December so that the socio-economic development of the country could be transformed. He said the continuous stay in office of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) after December would make the country look like "an airplane that continues to taxi without taking off".

Mr Mahama who was on a 10-day campaign tour of the Eastern Region was speaking at the launching of the 2008 Election Campaign of the NDC in the New Juaben South Constituency at the Koforidua Lorry Park on Wednesday.

He said the country needed a humble, trustworthy and a hardworking leader like Professor John Evans Atta-Mills to take it through the next stage of its development because he had a track record for the many years that he worked as a lecturer, head of the Internal Revenue Service and as the Vice President of the country.

Mr Mahama said the Auditor General's report indicated that about 25 per cent of the 40 trillion budget of the country could not be accounted for or the country could not get any value for that amount. He said if the government demonstrated the political will to investigate and fight corruption as it promised, there would be more money for the many development projects of the country.

Mr Mahama said the country's agricultural system had broken down and currently, apart from cocoa, all sectors of agriculture in the country were in distress with the poultry farmers facing the worse situation and the government seemed not to be able to find the solution to the problems.

He said the country needed a new political thinking and leadership to get the country out of the mess that it found itself and assured that the NDC was ready to provide that leadership and political thinking. Mr Mahama said no matter the inputs made in education, if the country could not find the right incentive and compensation package for teachers, the educational system would not achieve the desired results. He assured teachers that the NDC had better incentive packages for them when it assumed the reigns of government after December 2008. Mr Haruna Iddrisu, National Youth Organizer of NDC said the December election was not a war and urged supporters of the party to be tolerant but vigilant.

He said when NDC comes to power, it would review the National Youth Employment Programme and established a Youth Employment Programme backed by law.

The New Juaben South Parliamentary Candidate of the NDC, Mr Ransford Owusu Boakye, who was introduced at the launching, said the constituency was no longer the preserve for the NPP and would champion a good political campaign to win the seat for the NDC. He called on the people of the constituency to vote for the NDC for a change in their life style and said more could be done in the constituency under a creative leadership.