Akufo-Addo: NPP to capture all Ashanti seats

Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, Presidential candidate of the ruling New Patriotic Party, has stated that for the first time in the history of the NPP, the party is poised to capture all the seats in the Ashanti Region during the upcoming 2008 general elections.

Nana Akufo-Addo gave this assurance when he toured constituencies without sitting NPP MPs, popularly known as orphan constituencies, yesterday.

"This is our stronghold. This is the region whose votes send shivers down the spines of the NDC from 1996 till now. The NDC knows that Ashanti is one of the regions that decide the elections. They know how committed the region is to the cause of the NPP and so they devise all sorts of wicked propaganda against its people.

The last time in 2004, they got away with three seats; this time, however, they are going home with zero,” Nana declared, receiving thunderous cheers from the thousands of supporters who were following the campaign train.

He was met upon his arrival in the region by Kwame Addo-Kufuor, Head of the NPP's Security Committee; Kwame Amoako Tuffuor, Executive Chairman of the School Feeding Programme and Kofi Konadu Apraku, Campaign Director.

In his interaction with the milling crowd, Nana Akufo-Addo revealed that the NPP, in pursuance of its plan to make a clean sweep of the region has put in place a comprehensive strategy not only to win decisively the 2008 elections, but also inflict a humiliating and memorable defeat on the opposition National Democratic Congress in a way that will reduce to nothing their claims that the NPP stole the verdict in the last elections.

In ensuring that victory, Nana indicated that Ashanti is the one region the NPP will count on to deliver massively as they always do since 2000.

The constituencies scheduled to be visited by Nana Addo, includes Ejura Sekyeredumase, Asawase and Edubiase. In all these areas, he will meet with chiefs in the Zongo communities, opinion leaders, civil society groups and party supporters, with whom he intended sharing those strategies for defeating the NDC in the upcoming elections.

As part of the action plan to capture all the seats in the region, Nana Addo is expected to commission the newly-constructed NPP constituency office at Asawase. He will also address the local transport union offices and teeming supporters of the party in making them a part of that vision.

Other key towns he will visit as part of the regional campaign tour are Ayensu, Asokore and Mampong, where he will hold separate rallies to whip up support for the party.

Nana Addo will address rallies at Aboabo, Obunso and other areas. Later in the day, the Presidential candidate will address the executives of the party at the Kumasi Race Course to whip up enthusiasm for the NPP in the region and rejuvenate party activities.

Since his election as Presidential candidate, Nana Addo has toured indigenous Accra, GaDangme, Brong-Ahafo and the Central and Western Regions, all in an attempt to strategically rejuvenate and consolidate the party"s support base, particularly in orphan constituencies in the country.

All these initiatives are intended to repackage the NPP as a party of natural choice to the electorate to enable the ruling administration carry out its mandate of rapidly developing the economy and infrastructure base of the nation; and also positioning it as a stable democracy and economic giant in Africa.

The euphoria that has characterised the campaign activities of the team wherever it reached is a vivid demonstration of Nana Addo's popularity as well as the electorate's acknowledgement and appreciation for the rich development legacy President Kufuor has bequeathed the nation.

In the Eastern Region, for instance, one of such visits resulted in the defection of ace musician Nana Kwame Ampadu, who committed himself to release a music album lauding the NPP and calling on the electorate to shun politicians who trade insults and intimidate political opponents rather than debate issues.

The NPP is also working vigorously to make inroads into the Volta Region, perceived as the stronghold of the opposition NDC.

An analysis of the electoral results since 1992 show that the NPP's popular votes in the region has been rising steadily.

By slarge