Kenwood Nuworsu A LEADING member of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) in the Ashanti region, George Ayisi Boateng has asked whether the party has true supporters in the Volta region.

He contended that NPP agents would not have been badly treated in the just-ended presidential run-off in the region if the party had true supporters there.

It would be recalled that in the just-ended run-off in the Volta region there were reported cases of intimidation and harassment orchestrated by National Democratic Congress (NDC) supporters against NPP supporters.

The NPP had argued that it narrowly lost the presidential election due to the purported acts of violence which led to alleged massive rigging in the Volta region in favour of the NDC.

In an interview with DAILY GUIDE in Kumasi, Mr. Ayisi Boateng said his conviction that the NPP has no dyed-in-the wool activists in the Volta region was confirmed during the recent presidential run-off.

He said what was more disturbing was the fact that none of the government-appointed District Chief Executives (DCEs) and the party's parliamentary candidates in the region publicly commented on the ill-treatment meted out to NPP agents in the region during the polls.

Mr. Ayisi Boateng noted that following the development, he is tempted to believe that persons appointed by the government and the party as DCEs and parliamentary candidates were wolves in sheep's clothing.

'Any true NPP DCE and parliamentary candidate would have fiercely defended the electoral interest of the party under such bizarre circumstances,' he remarked.

As a means of ensuring that the ugly development does not recur, the NPP leading member advised the party to do thorough background checks on people it would select as parliamentary candidates and DCEs in future.

Mr. Ayisi Boateng thanked the electorate who voted for the NPP in the polls particularly voters in the Ashanti region.

He observed that had it not been the massive support of the electorate in the Ashanti region, the NPP would have been humiliated in the elections.

From Morgan Owusu, Kumasi