NDC Shares Goodies For Votes In Talensi By-Election

The ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) seems to be doing whatever it takes to annex the Talensi parliamentary seat following the resignation of Robert Mosore, the former Member of Parliament (MP) for the area, who has been enskinned paramount chief.

A by-election is scheduled for the constituency next Tuesday.

But even before then, the NDC is said to be busily doling out cash and various items, including flat screen television sets, mobile phones, radio sets, bags of rice, cooking oil, fertilizer, sugar, aluminum roofing sheets, weedicides, Magi cubes, salt, among others, with the intent to influence voters.

According to Bernard Antwi-Boasiako aka Wontumi, Ashanti Regional New Patriotic Party (NPP) chairman, the NDC resorted to the distribution of cash and goodies to the constituents in a desperate attempt to snatch the Talensi parliamentary seat from the NPP.

He claimed that the NDC has no proper campaign message; hence, resorting to the doling out of money to influence the voters.

Wontumi, who has temporarily relocated to Talensi for campaign purposes ahead of the much-talked-about by-election, stated categorically that the NDC money distribution campaign could not win them the seat.

GH¢20m Cash
At a press conference in the constituency yesterday, the youth of Talensi, led by one Ibrahim Bashiru, alleged that the NDC had indeed budgeted an amount of GH¢20 million for the by-election, making it a do or die affair.

What is baffling is the fact that some of these items, especially the television sets, are being given to people in communities with no electricity like Zubeong, Zoo and Yinduri.

Bashiru therefore advised voters in the area to accept any money or goodies that would be given them by the ruling NDC and its agents, but endeavour to vote massively against them to begin the movement for change in 2016, while rooting for the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) parliamentary candidate, Thomas Duana Wuni, in Tuesday's election.

For a constituency with a voter population of 40,000, Bashiru envisaged that 'Even if this money, which we suspect is from your own taxes and high petrol prices etc., was to be shared to all the voters in the constituency, every voter should get GH¢500.

'We will not say the people of Talensi should reject the things and money that the NDC is trying to buy your votes with. We will say whatever they bring to you, please take it. It is your money. In fact, it is only a very small fraction of your own money that they should be giving to you every month that they are bringing to you. They will spend all the cash they have taken in your name on themselves and give you some small change to insult you. Take it and insult them back with your votes,' the youth leader advised Talensi constituents.

Bashiru recalled how the NDC spent lots of money to buy votes in the Upper East Region during the 2012 general elections, adding that 'It is because of that reckless plundering of the country’s money in 2012 that is why government had to go to the IMF for a bailout and that is why every two weeks, petrol prices will go up, water prices will also keep going up, and the electricity that we do not even get, the prices keep on going up.'

Bashiru described as visionless as the party he represents, the NDC candidate for the Talensi by-election, Benson Tongo Baba.

'Their candidate, B.T. Baba was for years the boss of Ghana Prisons Service and yet he could not employ any of our youth from the area,' he noted, adding, 'It took the NPP to create the Talensi District, build the clinic, schools, teachers' quarters and revive industries in the area such as the Pwalugu Tomato Factory, the Cotton Factory in Pusu Namongo, the Rice Farm in Winkogo and the market in Pelungu, among other job-creating projects, in eight years.'

Fortunately for the people of Talensi, Bashiru said, they now have an opportunity to show to President Mahama and the NDC that enough is enough.

'Let the wind that will blow in 2016 begin with Talensi. Already the seat was taken from them in 2012. Talensi saw the light early. We led the way in this region. Let us send a stronger signal by voting massively for the NPP candidate, Thomas Duana Wuni. He is our 'home boy' and will work with our traditional leader and all to bring jobs and development.

Show the NDC the red card. Say 'no' to their corruption. Take the money but vote for your destiny,' he concluded.

By Charles Takyi-Boadu