Top executives of the National Democratic Congress have moved to the Bimbilla Constituency to conduct a mini-conference to select its candidate for the by-election scheduled for March 16 following the resignation of Dr Mohamed Ibn Chambas.

Mr Kofi Attor, NDC MP for Ho Central, said in Accra on Tuesday that a candidate would be named by Friday. He said Dr Obed Asamoah, Chairman of the National Reorganisation Committee and Alhaji Huudu Yahaya, General Secretary are among the top executives, who were on the ground.

The party was optimistic of retaining the Bimbilla seat, he said, describing the constituency as a safe haven. Dr Chambas resigned last week after his election as the Executive Secretary of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). Mr Attor said that the history of by-elections under the Fourth Republic tended to favour the incumbent party and that Bimbilla would follow the same trend.

Out of the four by-elections conducted since the inception of the Fourth Republic the NDC retained three seats and the New Patriotic Party (NPP) retained one. The NDC retained New Edubiase, Wenchi East and Lambusie seats and the NPP retained the Ablekuma Central seat.

Mr Attor said in spite of history favouring the party, "we have marshalled all resources to meet any opposition, obstacle and hindrance to ensure that NDC wins convincingly".

The NDC sees the by-election as a challenge, which the party was capable of overcoming even in opposition. "The NPP ...has not done any thing to deserve the seat and we have a lot of goodwill."

The Bimbilla constituency has lessons to teach, as Dr Chambas won the seat, lost it and won it again in the three elections during the Fourth Republic. Dr Chambas won the seat in 1992 on the NDC ticket, lost it to Mr George Dagmanyi Mpambi of the Peoples' National Convention (PNC) in 1996 and regained it in 2000.

The NPP had not been in sight at Bimbilla until the 2000 elections when its candidate Mr Mohammed A Wumbei polled 9,117 (30.01 per cent) of the votes cast to place second to Dr Chambas, who had 18,611 votes (61.25 per cent).

Meanwhile the People's National Convention (PNC) has also indicated its readiness to capture the seat they lost in the 2000 elections. A party official told the GNA that, "the seat belongs to us. We have corrected our political mistake and will re-capture it."