Kyebi, Dec. 6, GNA - Nana Addo Aikins, an independent parliamentary candidate for Abuakwa South, has urged the electorate to consider how approachable a candidate would be if elected into parliament to serve their interests before voting for that candidate.

He urged the electorate to consider a candidate's background in terms of where he belongs to, how well he had been relating to them before becoming a candidate and what contributions he had made towards the welfare of the constituency.

In an interview with the GNA, Nana Addo Aikins said a candidate's past performances as well as how ready, willing and capable he would be in carrying out tasks for the constituency together with how well he could find workable solutions to the problems of the constituency should be considered before being given the nod.

He said integrity, honesty, humility, respect for all manner of persons together with how effectively a candidate could represent the constituency in parliament and in government as well as at national and international fora were other factors that the electorate in Abuakwa South must consider before casting their votes for a candidate. "The electorate must this time round avoid past mistakes, forget about unproductive party affiliations, riches, beautiful posters, giant bill boards, beautifully decorated party vans, party songs and all other politically motivated sporting activities in the area like joggings and others in which a student of St Stephens School at Asiakwa lost his life since all these are mere propaganda ruse to divert people's attention from thinking and voting rightly".

He appealed to them to identity those politicians who are engaging in fraudulent electoral practices such as buying votes or making the nation's democracy "moneycracy" and report them to the security agencies since those practices were the causes of problems the nation was currently facing.

"The huge sums of money, motor cycles, bicycles, mattresses, fridges, television sets and many others being lavishly splashed all over the place in Abuakwa South are all electoral offences that need to be reported to the security agencies for action to be taken."

Nana Addo Aikins appealed to the electorate to vote against the back ground of their wretched conditions of life for the past 16 years with particular reference to the youth who had suffered neglect. He said for the past 16 years, Abuakwa South constituency has never even benefited from the numerous government packages like HIPC projects, the Millennium Challenge Accounts (MCA), the LEAP and many others leaving the people desolate, impoverished and deprived. Nana Addo Aikins said ironically, the constituency's former MPs did not refuse collecting several billions of MPS Common Fund while in Office.

"The issue is the people from the constituency have voted one way for far too long without attaining progress in their lives and that the time has come for them to change direction in their voting pattern".