Volta Region Must have the Speaker of Parliament or Forget Us in next election - Volta Youth Network

The Volta Youth Network extends appreciation to Ghanaians especially the people of the Volta Region for their massive turnout during the December 7 elections. We acknowledge your sacrifices leading to an overwhelming endorsement of His Excellency John Dramani Mahama and the NDC in what has regrettably become a disputed election.

While we are solidly behind the leadership of the NDC to use every means necessary to reclaim the party’s legitimate Parliamentary seats stolen by the NPP to legitimize our Majority in Parliament, we wish to express the concerns of the people of the Volta region to the NDC party leadership.

The people of the Volta Region have stood with the NDC in every election since 1992 and it is beyond doubt the World Bank of the party. The party has also won several Parliamentary seats in other regions in communities where Voltarians are the main settlers. While the disputed election statistics indicate the NDC and its Presidential Candidate John Mahama performed exceedingly well in the Volta Region, the Northern regions and Central region where the Presidential Candidate and Running mate respectively come from performed abysmally beyond conventional expectation in the Presidential votes. Also, it is worth mentioning the Minority leader of Parliament, Haruna Iddrisu comes from the Northern Region yet when we consider the old Northern region in perspective, the NPP won more parliamentary seats than the NDC, i.e. 16/15. Meaning the NDC could not win the home regions of our major front liners in the election.

It is therefore obvious to conclude that without the people of the Volta region, NDC has no legitimate right over the years to have won any elections in Ghana in the 4th Republic.

However, recent events particularly at the leadership of the party only turn to indicate bad faith towards the people of the region. Currently, the World bank of the NDC does not have any executive in the top leadership at the national level (either National Chairman, Gen. Secretary, National Organizer, National Women Organizer, National Youth Organizer). Same way, Presidential Candidate, Running-mate, Minority Leader, and even Campaign Chairman in the just-ended elections all went to people of other regions.

The general feeling among the people of the region is that the NDC has shown so much bad faith to the region that we can no longer countenance in the nomination of the next Speaker of the 8th Parliament of the 4th Republic which we are confident would go to the NDC.

We wish to state unequivocally the following:

1. That the NDC must nominate a Voltarian for the position of the Speaker of the 8th Parliament without any hesitation to compensate for the neglect of the region in the affairs of the party,
2. That any member of Parliament from the region who for selfish reasons would work in any clandestine manner to undermine this clarion call from the region would be exposed and voted out in the next election,
3. That the death of the party Founder, Flt. Lt. Jerry John Rawlings has cast a shadow on the soul of the party in the region and anything short of the next Speaker of Parliament coming from the region will further demoralize the party’s support base. It will also affirm the common belief by Voltarians that the NDC is only interested in the votes from the region,
4. That it will be an indictment on the conscience of the current NDC leadership including His Excellency John Mahama if they ignore our demand and the New Patriotic Party (NPP) instead presents a Voltarian, Justice Jones Mawulorm Dotse for consideration as Speaker for the 8th parliament.

We wish to emphasise further that our demand is non-negotiable and the people of the region will advise themselves accordingly going forward if the party decides otherwise.

The party must consider the fundamental role of the Volta region as the bedrock of the NDC and excuse every selfish interest for the greater good of the NDC in nominating for consideration, the Speaker of the 8th Parliament.

We trust the leadership of the NDC will listen to our call and do the needful.

RICHARD FIDEL AGBEKO BEDI

(COORDINATOR, VYN)

0240828526