Biggest shocker at polls will be at Dagbon, say Researchers

Kwame Danso (B/A), Nov. 30, GNA - A team of Researchers has predicted that the biggest shocker at the December 7 polls would be at Dagbon where the National Democratic Congress (NDC) wrongly thinks it could use the death of the Ya-Na Yakubu Andani, Paramount chief of the Area, and 30 other to score political victory.

For the first time, the team said, the NPP would make significant gains in the three Northern Regions.

The team, called the Dr Moussa Campaign Research Team led by Dr Jebir Kebir Moussa, a General Consultant of Kilburn High, London, came out with its findings after about six months of ''free on-the-ground research work.''

Addressing Journalists at Kwame Danso in the Sene District at the weekend where part of the team covering the Northern Sector of the country completed its work, Dr Moussa said the NPP was poised to sweep the votes in the four regions of the middle belt - Brong-Ahafo, Eastern, Western and Ashanti - and also take majority votes in the Northern, Upper East and Upper West Regions.

He said President John Agyekum Kufuor was poised to take at least 65 per cent of the popular votes.

"We have a feeling President Kufuor is making history", he said, adding "when you go round, the support you see is simply wonderful". Dr Moussa, whose team conducted a similar exercise during the 2000 Elections, said the NPP would make significant gains in the Northern part of the Volta Region and take a higher number of votes and parliamentary seats in the Greater Accra Region.

He cautioned Mr John Mahama, the NDC Member of Parliament for Bole-Bamboi, to be on the look out for a shocker from the NPP in the constituency, saying from interactions his team had with opinion leaders and many ordinary people in the Bole-Bamboi area, there was every indication that they were not happy with the performance of the MP. Dr Moussa said the vast majority of the people saw a contrast between President Kufuor and both Professor John Evans Atta Mills and Former President Jerry John Rawlings.

In the villages, he said many people believed the contest was between Former President Rawlings and President Kufuor and pointed out "in politics when you have a situation as the NDC finds itself, then you are in trouble".

Dr Moussa said some supporters of the NDC would be frustrated if they did not see the picture of Former President Rawlings on the ballot paper.

Dr Moussa said his team had a strong feeling that the elections would be fought on records between the NPP and NDC and that the scales would tilt in favour of the NPP.

He said one of the progressive strategies used by the NPP was the non-ethnic system of selecting parliamentary candidates and mentioned the New Edubiase and Ahafo-Ano South Constituencies, where a full-blooded Ewe and a Basare, respectively, were contesting on the ticket of the Party.

Dr Moussa said of all the constituencies they visited, there was not a single one where serious development projects were not taking place and this placed the NPP in an advantageous position. Dr Moussa and his team had earlier met NPP supporters at Atebubu and Kojokrom where they distributed NPP posters and other party paraphernalia to them and charged them to take the last week of the campaigning serious.

The Brong-Ahafo Regional Secretary of the NPP, Mr E. K. Kusi, who accompanied the team on their last visit, commended Dr Moussa's team for the tremendous assistance to the Party since 2000.

He said the NPP was never disturbed about the lies being perpetrated by the desperate NDC and pointed out that the people had read through their tricks and would reject them.