NDC Dashes Goodies At Wulensi For By-Election

Personnel busy at work

The ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) is desperate to win the Wulensi parliamentary seat in the by-election slated for July 31, 2012, as it employs unconventional tactics to outwit its opponents.

The by-election would be used to assess the popularity of the ruling party, which is reported to have neglected the Nanumba South District created under the erstwhile New Patriotic Party (NPP) administration.

According to a section of residents who spoke to DAILY GUIDE , since the assumption of office of the Mills administration in 2009, roads in the town earmarked for construction had been abandoned.

Government prudently began work on the projects after an announcement by the EC to organize the by-election in the area.

According to some of them, government was desperate to win the votes to annex the seat following the sudden death of the independent Member of Parliament (MP), Alhaji Sanni Iddi.

To ensure that they outwit the residents, the NDC, through the District Chief Executive (DCE), has in the last few days embarked on series of new projects with the promise of completing them before schedule.

As witnessed during the Chereponi by-election, the NDC has started constructing new feeder roads to link the district capital to surrounding communities while communities without electricity were being hooked to the national grid.

People cannot fathom why streetlights have not been erected in communities like Montonaya and Kpayili with huge population.

In the wake of the last minute development projects, opinion leaders in some strongholds of the NPP are being induced with money and other materials in order to win them into their fold.

But Northern Regional Scribe of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) Dr. Clifford Braimah maintained that the NDC will lose the seat to the NPP.

According to him, several lessons had been learnt from the incident at Chereponi and he expressed confidence that the party will win at the end of the day.

'Despite the massive following in the area we are leaving nothing to chance and will appeal to the conscience of people not to allow material things to influence them into making wrong decisions,' he remarked.

Meanwhile, seven candidates, including one independent, have filed their nominations to contest the Wulensi by-election.

They are Imoro Sualey, New Vision Party, Damba Issah, Progressive People's Party (PPP), Nlenkiba Abraham, Independent People's Party (IPP), Haruna Musah, Convention People's Party (CPP); Thomas Donkor Ogajah, New Patriotic Party (NPP); Laliri George Maban, National Democratic Congress (NDC) and Mohammed Adam, the independent candidate.

In spite of the suit by three political parties against the Electoral Commission (EC) on its decision to organize the by-election with the old voters register, the various political parties are earnestly campaigning.

The NDC, NPP and CPP joined forces a couple of weeks ago to sue the EC over its intent to use the old voters register in the Kwabre and Wulensi  by-elections but the EC says the new register cannot be used because all the processes to make it authentic have not been fully completed.

  From Stephen Zoure, Tamale