Vote for NPP PC to facilitate passage of bills - Aidoo

Bogoso (W/R), Nov. 21, GNA - Mr Joseph Boahen Aidoo, Western Regional Minister, has urged supporters of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) to vote for the Party's Parliamentary Candidates, whether old or new to enhance the passage of bills.

He said voting "skirt and blouse", which means approving President John Agyekum Kufuor and voting for a parliamentary candidate of another party, would not help the NPP.

President Kufuor needs loyal and committed party members in Parliament to think with in terms of passing bills and approving loans for development, Mr Aidoo told a rally at Bogoso to mark the official launch of the Prestea/Huni-Valley campaign on Saturday.

He said road infrastructure development was a top priority of the NPP Government because it would enhance investment drive, adding that plans were afoot to tar the Sefwi Wiawso-Kumasi; Manso Amenfi-Asankragwa and Bibiani-Kumasi roads.

Mr Aidoo, who is also MP for the Amenfi East Constituency, said criminal libel law was repealed to allow freedom of speech to prevail, unlike in the previous regime when people were afraid to discuss how they were governed.

He said the NPP took over an economy which was in shambles with inflation rate at 48 per cent in 2000, "but now it has reduced to 12 percent," adding "Wo mpe eyi na wo pe den?", to wit "if you do not like this, then what do you like?"

Prof Dominic Fobih, Minister of Lands and Forestry, said Ghana's foreign reserve in 2000 could have sustained it for only three weeks but now with almost four years of NPP rule, the reserve could cater for Ghana for four months and three weeks.

He said this was due to favourable financial policies of the NPP Government.

Prof Fobih said bank interest rates had dipped from 48 per cent in 2000 to between 18 per cent and 22 per cent and that this would encourage businessmen to access loans from the banks to expand their businesses.

He said cocoa production had improved because of the mass spraying exercise adding, cocoa production hit 736,000 metric tons in 2004, breaking the long existing record of 560,000 tons in 1964-65. Mr Albert Kwaku Obbin, MP for Prestea/Huni-Valley, appealed to the electorate to compare achievements of NPP in four years and that of National Democratic Congress (NDC) before casting their vote.