Yendi (N/R), Nov. 16, GNA - Alhaji Malik Alhassan Yakubu, NPP Member of Parliament for Yendi, has appealed to Ghanaians to vote the party back to power to entrench democracy and accelerate the development of the country. He said some people were calling for change just for the sake of it, adding that Ghanaians did not need the change of retrogression but the positive change that the NPP brought to the country in 2000. Alhaji Yakubu said this when he addressed a well attended rally to launch his campaign to retain his sit in the constituency in Yendi on Saturday.

He said Ghanaians did not want to go back to the change of the past of arbitrary arrest, confiscation of property and the lack of freedom of expression which were characteristic of the PNDC and NDC days. He said since the NPP assumed power it had given freedom to the people and embarked on a lot of infrastructural development including the construction of roads, markets, schools, hospitals and the provision of other social amenities throughout the country.

Alhaji Yakubu said the passage of the Northern Development Fund (NDF) into law would accelerate the north's development and bridge the development gap between the north and the south. The MP assured the people that when voted back to parliament he would work hard to ensure the empowerment of women and the extension of electricity to the rural areas.

"We are brothers and sisters and I urge you to remain united and election is about exercising our democratic right and not fighting", Alhaji Yakubu said.

Alhaji Mohammed Habib Tijani, the Yendi Municipal Chief Executive said the National Democratic Congress (NDC) was no match for the NPP in the Yendi constituency and added that those who were also standing as independent candidates were only deceiving themselves. He said in view of the numerous development projects undertaken by the NPP government during the past seven years the people were going to vote massively for the party.