General News of Friday, 10 February 2012

Source: Daily Guide

NDC Dashes TVs To Opinion Leaders

Reports Reaching Daily Guide indicate that starting from today, the National Democratic Congress (NDC) will distribute items such as television sets, DVD players and radio sets to some opinion leaders in some selected communities across the country.

The clandestine move by the ruling political party is geared towards influencing the beneficiaries so that they would cooperate with the NDC to allegedly rig the December polls in their various localities.

The NDC, according to a source who pleaded anonymity for security reasons, was distributing the items now so that the beneficiaries would help the party to get persons below 18 years, whose parents were NDC faithful, to register when the voter registration exercise began in March.

The source told Daily Guide that the ruling party had successfully distributed mobile phones to some key opinion leaders in some communities recently, notably the Ashanti and Brong Ahafo regions, in line with achieving its goal.

It mentioned NDC National Chairman, Dr Kwabena Adjei, as being allegedly supportive of this grand agenda which was aimed at helping the NDC record more votes in NPP strongholds so as to help the party retain power in 2012.

The source hinted that the NDC was targeting areas such as Kintampo North, Kintampo South, Wenchi, Techiman, Tain, Nsawkaw, Sampa Jaman North Jaman South and Asutufi.

Others are Sene (Kwame Danso), Atebubu Amanti, Nkoranza, Asutifi, Kenyase, in the Brong Ahafo.

The rest include Drobo, Ejura, Sekyerei West/East, New Edubiase, New Offinso Essam, Bia and Denu.

A popular pollster in the country, who is the managing editor of a newspaper, was reportedly hired by the NDC to conduct a research across the country about the chances of the NDC with regard to winning the 2012 polls.

The researcher, after his findings, specifically told the NDC that it did not stand the chance of winning the polls one touch, therefore something urgent needed to be done to help it retain power.

He therefore allegedly proposed that if the NDC wanted to win the elections one touch, then it should maneuver to get minors registered in some communities across the country, notably areas that the NPP had more support and other strongholds of the NDC in Ashanti and Brong Ahafo regions.

The researcher also told the party that it had the chance of snatching three seats from the NPP in the Ashanti Region if it was able to get minors registered, bloating the voter register in the process.

The targeted areas that the NDC wants to snatch seats from the NPP in the Ashanti Region include Offinso South, Ahafo Ano South and Asante Akim North constituencies.

The pollster also allegedly suggested to the NDC that if it really wanted to win the elections one touch, then it should do everything possible- legal or illegal- to improve its gains in some areas.

These include Tepa, Mankranso, Kusu Number One, Kusu Number Two, Sabronom, Abesewa, New Offinso and Asante Akim. The source said some NDC gurus had lately been moving from Accra to Kumasi frequently to make sure that the planned agenda was successful.

It hinted that NDC executives in the Ashanti Region had been sidelined from this project and in their place some professionals in Kumasi, who were not well known in political circles, had been picked by the NDC to manage this grand scheme so that nobody would suspect them.