Even before the whistle for political parties to commence activities towards the 2016 general elections would be blown, some of the political parties have already rolled into motion their plans to win the polls.
The Volta Regional Chairman of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC), Mr. Kwadwo Gyapong, has assured the party that the Volta region is putting in place measures that would neutralize the votes of the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) in the Ashanti and the Eastern regions to ensure that the government retains power in the 2016 general election.
Mr. Gyapong disclosed that the agenda of the NDC in the Volta region was to win additional one million votes in the forthcoming elections to ensure that it neutralizes whatever votes the NPP would garner in its two regions, where it is very strong on the ground. This, according to him, would give meaning to the Region as the “World Bank” of the NDC.
Addressing media personnel at Ho about preparations the party was making towards the 2016 general elections, Mr. Gyapong said analysis of the last election showed that the strongholds of the NPP were the Ashanti and the Eastern regions respectively.
This means that if the Volta region successfully achieves the one million extra votes in the 2016 elections, the NDC would definitely retain power because the margin the two regions used to beat the NDC with, in previous elections, was not up to one million.
Even though, he admitted that the task was not an easy one, he said the party had started its activities quietly at the grassroots, first and foremost to unify party members at those level, as a way of setting the tone for vigorous campaign activities, when the National Executives of the party lift the ban on campaign activities, after its primaries that is yet to be held.
Mr. Gyapong continued that the party at the regional level was able to address most of the conflicts within the constituencies, including that of Agortime-Ziope, stressing that the party has identified education as vital for its members to understand the need to vote for the NDC in the 2016 general election, saying people over the years just cast their votes without knowing its importance, while others also decide not to vote at all.
He has, therefore, warned party members particularly; those interested in becoming members of parliament to respect the party’s rules and regulations since any practice calculated to bring the image of the party into disrepute and undermine its efforts to win the 2016 general election would not be tolerated.
Mr. Gyapong noted that MPs of the party in the region were busy persons performing their constitutional mandate in parliament, therefore, anybody who would take advantage of the nature of their work and start campaigning in the constituencies with the aim of contesting against them would be doing so at their own peril.
He said the regional secretariat would work hard to ensure sound victory for the party in the 2016 general election, stressing that reports were made to the regional party office that some people had started going round introducing themselves as parliamentary aspirants for the various constituencies, when the party has not sanction it.
The Regional Chair indicated that the regional officials would continue to monitor activities of such people noting that those who were deliberately violating the party’s rules and regulations should rather mend their ways and demonstrate high level of commitment to the party.
He, however, cautioned that if such people continue to disregard the party’s rules and regulations then they should forget about the dreams of contesting as parliamentary aspirants.
“If anybody is interested in becoming a member of parliament, then there is the need for the person to wait for the right time to do so. Our MPs are busy people and if anybody wants to go behind them, then the person does not even qualify in the first place to apply to contest as an aspirant of our party”, he stressed.
The Regional Chairman explained that as at now, the party has no official parliamentary aspirants, since it has not held its parliamentary primaries, let alone to authorize aspirants to start their campaigns, stressing that anybody is to campaign ahead of the party’s planed programmes from the national and the regions.
Mr. Gyapong also cautioned that the NDC would not be troubled by what he described as group of people embarking on demonstration against the ruling government in the region anytime general elections get close, citing example of a group of youth in the Ketu South District calling themselves “disappointed NDC members” demonstrating and threatening to leave the party.
According to the Regional Chairman, members of the group are not party members because the NDC is a well-organized party with channels for aggrieved members to address their grievances noting that real party members would first of all expressed their concerns through the appropriate channel.
He, however, noted that normally people use the electioneering period to put unnecessary pressure on political parties and issue threats to scare the government in power, with the aim of getting money out of their activities as they threaten to leave the party if their concerns were not addressed, adding that in the case of the Ketu South demonstrators, they were actually not party members, as investigations proved that none of them was a registered NDC member.
“Look, if these people are really party people, did they announce the day they registered as members of the NDC? They did not march on the street to tell people that they are members of our party and why is it that when they genuinely want to leave, they would have to demonstrate and threaten the party before they leave”, he queried.
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