Politics of Tuesday, 16 November 2004

Source: GNA

NDC is a decadent party - NPP Candidate

Accra, Nov.16, GNA - Mr Samuel Owusu-Agyei, New Patriotic Party (NPP) Parliamentary Candidate for Effutu Constituency, on Monday described the National Democratic Party (NDC) as a decadent party not worthy to rule the country.

Speaking in an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in Accra, he declared: "The result of Elections 2004 is already known as President John Agyekum Kufuor would win massively to humiliate and annihilate NDC from Ghanaian politics."

The Effutu NPP Candidate said: "The Volta Region, which was the NDC's World Bank since 1992 is now a mere Rural Bank according to provisional figures of the recent Voters' Registration Exercise". The Region's total voter population fell by 120,000 voters, he said, adding that, "this is a bad omen for the NDC hence their consistent twitchy calls on the Electoral Commission (EC) about unsubstantiated malpractices".

Mr Owusu-Agyei said the NDC by these calls was only laying the grounds for challenging the results of the elections. He explained that the results of the six bye-elections since the General Election in 2000, which the NPP won all against the NDC attested to the fact that Former President Jerry John Rawlings' legacy was dead, stressing "the votes of NDC in the bye-elections fell far below votes obtained during the general election."

Mr Owusu-Agyei said he would use his experience and expertise to transform the area when given the nod, adding that, tourism and the salt industry would be among his priorities to create jobs for the people, especially the youth.

He called for a peaceful election, which he said was a perquisite for development and urged supporters of the NPP to avoid abusive language and acts that could undermine the elections.

Mr Owusu-Agyei appealed to the people to vote for President Kufuor and the NPP to continue with its good governance.

The Effutu Parliamentary candidate called on politicians not to use their campaign platforms to incite their members to create confusion, saying, "the time has come for politicians to help make politics a system of alternatives, which calls for campaigning on issues instead of resorting to insults and lies.

"We as politicians should be able to convince our constituents with our programmes that we can achieve while in office. We must appeal to the people to vote for us; but we must not engage in campaigns of lies, half-truths and misinformation coupled with insults to create unnecessary tension," Mr Owusu-Agyei said.

"When we listen to the phone-ins on FM radio stations and read some newspapers, it looks like there is tension in the country; but on the ground, that is not the case.

"At least, Ghanaians have learnt good lessons from what has happened in other West African countries," he stated.