Bolgatanga, Jan 19, GNA - The Bolgatanga central constituency of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) has elected Mr. Akolbire Opam Brown as its parliamentary candidate for the December general elections.

The 43-year-old Information and Communication Technology (ICT) expert polled 136 votes out of the 210 valid votes cast during the constituency primaries held at the weekend in Bolgatanga to beat the former presiding member of the Bolgatanga District Assembly, Mr. Simon Atebiya.

Dr Joshua Awindor, the third contestant and also ICT software expert, was widely tipped to win the primaries but he died in early December after a short illness.

In a pre-election address, the constituency chairman of the party, Mr. Epsona Agamga described the current process of selecting the party's parliamentary candidate for the area as more open and transparent than before.

"The selection criteria is most acceptable to all and indeed it is a departure from that of the 'imposition method' that characterized the 2000 selections that led to a major defeat of the party in many areas, including the Bolgatanga constituency," he said.

Mr Agamga advised the rank and file of the party to close their ranks and stop the internal wrangling that has been the major problem among key personalities of the party in the area.

Mr Brown pledged to work hard to restore the image of the NDC and to work for a resounding victory in the forthcoming elections. There were goodwill messages from the New Patriotic Party (NPP), senior party functionaries and representatives of other constituencies of the NDC in the region, most of them expressing the need for peace to prevail during the December 2004 elections.