Cape Coast, Dec. 11, GNA - The executives of the Central Regional branches of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the New Patriotic Party (NPP) have said they would work hard to canvass for more votes for their presidential candidates in the run-off on December 28. They expressed their determination in interviews with the GNA after the Electoral Commission (EC) announced the result of the election. Mr Kwamina Duncan, regional secretary of the NPP, said the result showed that between Prof John Atta Mills and Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, Ghanaians had approved the NPP presidential candidate "even though it is not complete."

He said he could not foresee how the result of the run-off could be any different and to ensure a resounding win for their candidate the regional branch had began to formulate strategies to win more votes in the region, particularly in the eight constituencies that it lost to the NDC.

On the party's heavy losses along the coastal belt of the country, Mr Duncan said there must have been other "extraneous factors" that led to its defeat such as the inability of the government to tackle the fishermen's concerns about pair trawling and distribution of pre-mix fuel. He said these matters could not have been tackled at the party level and that it was for the government to have taken these concerns seriously.

"The party's defeat in these areas must have been the fishermen's way of registering their protest." On the general conduct of the election, Mr Duncan commended people in the region for voting peacefully, the NDC for winning in 11 of the 19 constituencies and the regional election security taskforce and the media, for discharging their duties efficiently. The regional NDC chairman, Mr Sam Valis Akyianu, said he was optimistic that Prof. Mills would win the run-off, saying that would be more appropriate, since the party has the largest number of parliamentarians.

He said the regional executive was going to intensify its campaign, especially in the remaining eight constituencies retained by the NPP, to convince people to vote for Prof. Mills. Speaking to some residents about their views for the run-off, some of them said they would want Nana Akufo-Addo to win, while others said they wanted a change and would rather want Prof Mills to win. People who spoke in favour of a win for Prof. Mills seemed to be happy about the outcome of the results but supporters of the NPP were surprised and unhappy about the outcome. Some complained about the run-off, saying it was going to affect them financially since they had to travel to Kumasi to cast their votes.

During Sunday's parliamentary election the NDC, which hitherto had two seats in parliament, took eight of the 16 held by the NPP. 11 Dec 08