The presidential candidate of the New Patriotic Party, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has expressed confidence of a victory in the 2016 elections despite the ‘disappointing’ results of Talensi by-election.

The National Democratic Congress’ (NDC) candidate, B.T. Baba was elected the Member of Parliament for the Talensi Constituency in the Upper East Region.

According to Nana Akufo-Addo, the attitude and the commitment of NPP Members of Parliament (MPs), national officers, regional, constituency and polling station executives, and the entire membership of the party towards the Talensi by-election were very encouraging, and indicative of the fact that the NPP is determined to work hard for victory in 2016.

BT Baba polled 10, 366 votes representing 42.31% of the total votes while the NPP’s Wuni Thomas Duanab polled 6,845 votes representing 27.94%. “The results were not what we were expecting, but I am not too worried about that, especially as it was a traditional NDC seat. I am interested in the morale and the attitude of our party members that were on display in the campaign and on the day. The results are disappointing, but the work that was done, coupled with the attitude and commitment of our people towards the work ahead in 2016, was very encouraging,” Akufo-Addo said.

The NPP flagbearer made this known when 5 newly-elected parliamentary candidates, together with their constituency chairmen and the unsuccessful parliamentary aspirants, from the Aowin, Bia East, Bia West, Bodi and Juaboso constituencies, all in the Western Region, called on him at his Nima residence, on Wednesday, July 8, to introduce themselves formally to him.

In his remarks to the newly-elected candidates, Akufo-Addo appealed to them to adopt, what he describes as, the ‘Talensi Model’ in their respective constituencies, in the run-up to the campaign for 2016.

Explaining the ‘Talensi Model’, Nana Akufo-Addo stated that “all the NPP aspirants who contested in the Talensi primaries were all together in the campaign. The aspirants who lost to Thomas Duanab were with him everywhere and it helped our campaign. They showed the way, which was that, ‘we are all going to campaign for Duanab’.”

This model, according to Akufo-Addo, must be replicated in all 275 constituencies across the country if the NPP is to be victorious in 2016.

He also urged all NPP members, sympathisers and well-wishers not to be discouraged by the Talensi result, as “this seat was not traditionally our seat.

“We shouldn’t be discouraged. We all witnessed the blatant abuse of incumbency in Talensi, to the extent that the entire government machinery, including State-sponsored violence, descended on this constituency all in the bid to win a by-election. On the contrary, I was impressed by the attitude and morale shown by our party members. If we can replicate this, it will help us a lot,” he added.