The ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) has targeted 10 parliamentary seats in the Ashanti Region for grabs in the 2016 general election.
Currently, the party has four of the 47 seats in the region while the main opposition party, the New Patriotic Party (NPP), has 43.
However, the NDC says it has put in place appropriate mechanisms and done self-introspection which points to the fact that the target is achievable.
The 10 parliamentary targeted seats form part of the party’s broad-based plans and agenda to win at least one million votes in the region to guarantee a second term for President John Dramani Mahama.
Per the party’s permutation, the one million votes is a combination of the 400,000 votes secured in 2008 and 600,000 in 2012 obtained in the region.
The deposed Ashanti Deputy Regional Minister, Joseph Yamin, told the party faithful at Obuasi in an Entrepreneurial League that the party had done enough work to win at least one million of the 2.5 million votes in the region.
The Entrepreneurial League is an initiative by the Municipal Chief Executive of Obuasi, Mr Richard Ofori-Agyemang Boadi, which is to give a head start to young artisans and other professionals in the Adansi area.
Project The programme, which has been segmented to run till next year, is also to be held in August, September, January and June next year.
A total of 160 youth are to benefit from various tools including dryers for hairdressers, sewing machines for dressmakers and construction equipment for constractors.
The idea is to win the votes of the youth who are dependent on others for survival and to help them create jobs for their fellow youth.
The MCE, fondly called King Zuba, is to spend GH¢ 120,000 for the entire project, the first phase of which has benefited 38 people at a cost GH¢ 46,000.
Dumsor Sounding very optimistic, Mr Yamin said the current power crisis would not be part of any political party’s campaign message because the problem would have been solved before then.
He said parties should begin to look for other campaign messages and slogans because they would be disappointed during the campaign period as ‘dumsor’ would have been a thing of the past.
Yamoah Ponkor Presenting a more realistic opinion on the one million votes target, the Municipal Chief Executive of Ejisu/Juaben Municipal Assembly of the Ashanti Region, Mr Afrifa Yamoah-Ponkor, said if members failed to deal with the creeping factionalism and bickering, “We will disappoint the President.”
He said the disunity, either perceived or real, needed to be dealt with immediately else the main opposition party, New Patriotic Party, would capitalise on it to scuttle the party’s votes.
Mr Yamoah-Ponkor urged party members to close their ranks and help it to win power first and “then all other things would be sorted out.”
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