Tamale, May 23, GNA - The New Patriotic Party (NPP) has urged the people of northern Ghana not to follow the populist rhetoric of some politicians who pretend they love them just because they wear smocks or other northern attire.

Mr. Abu Jinapur, Director of Public Relations of the Danquah/Busia Institute, said this at a meeting with journalists in Tamale on Thursday to outline the party's campaign strategy.

He urged the electorate to compare the tract record of the various political parties when they were in power and the public life of the presidential candidates and vote for the most competent and visionary leader among them.

He said it was only Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo who had distinguished himself in the struggle against dictatorship and tyranny in the country.

In public life he served very well as the Attorney General and Foreign Minister and brought honour and respect to himself and the country.

Mr. Jinapur appealed to northerners to disabuse their minds that the NPP was an ethnic based party and said the party had its roots in the Northern Peoples Party. Moreover, he said, the constitution of the country did not permit the formation of parties based on ethnic lines and therefore any one who claimed the NPP was ethnic based was only playing propaganda. He said, for instance, in both 1992 and 1996 elections the NPP had northerners as the running mates to the party's flag bearer, while the NDC went in for southerners on both occasions. Mr. Jinapur said it was regrettable that the Northern Region had remained a stronghold of the NDC for so long adding: "This so called monopoly of the NDC in the Northern Region must be broken". Dr. Kwadjo Owusu Afriyie, NPP Communication Director for the Ashanti Region, said the NDC feared its past since it could not show any meaningful development it brought to the country during its eight years in power and had therefore resorted to propaganda to deceive the people. He said it was for this reason that the NDC was running away from comparisons between its achievements while in power and that of the NPP, adding: "Failing to compare records would be a recipe for disaster". 23 May 08