<<Print>>

The streets of Accra are  virtually  awash with giant billboards and posters  of some of the 106  parliamentary aspirants of the National Democratic Congress (NDC)  seeking the votes of their constituents, with barely four days to the party’s  parliamentary primaries.

Some of these billboards and posters, which have been mounted at vantage positions in the various constituencies, advertise the virtues and faces of the aspirants.

Among the 106 aspirants are 12 females, including Ms Obuobia Opoku-Darko, Deputy Chief Executive Officer of the Free Board Zone, and Dr Ezanetor Agyeman Rawlings, a daughter of  former President Rawlings, who has achieved a celebrity status in the Korle Klottey Constituency.
 

Dr Agyeman Rawlings is giving Mr Nii Armah Ashietey, the incumbent Member of Parliament, a lot of headaches as he campaigns vigorously to retain his seat.

A visit  by Daily Graphic to some of the constituencies yesterday revealed that apart from candidates employing the house-to-house campaign method to solicit votes, they were also using billboards, posters, banners and fliers to reach out to the voters.

They are going the extra mile to convince the voters beyond verbal messages.

Whereas some of the candidates, especially the incumbents, have mounted massive billboards at vantage positions in their constituencies, their contenders, mostly first-timers, are struggling to catch up and have, therefore,  resorted  to the use of posters and  small banners to appeal to the voters.

Posters and banners
Some of these posters and banners are posted on walls and pick-ups belonging to the candidates. There is also a public address system mounted at the back of these vehicles blaring out the campaign songs of the candidates.

At the Accra Psychiatric Hospital, for instance, there is a huge billboard of the incumbent MP for Korle Klottey constituency, Nii Armah Ashietey, appealing to voters to rally behind him ahead of the primary. His main contender, Ms Agyeman Rawlings, has many posters along the streets of Osu.

In the Ablekuma West constituency, the race appears competitive for the four aspirants which include three females seeking to lead the party in the 2016 elections. The billboards and posters of the three females, namely Madam Marian Korkor Ayertey, Mrs Diana Twum and Akweley Martey-Amoo and a male, Mr Prince Dreck Adjei, were found on virtually every street of Ablekuma West.

The situation was no different in other constituencies, including Weija Gbawe where Ms Obuobia  Opoku-Darko had erected a sizeable billboard on the Weija- Kasoa road.

Candidates determined
Apart from the mounting of billboards and posters, there is also news on the ground that aspirants have beefed up their campaigns ahead of Saturday with  floats and  house-to-house persuasion  to round off their campaigns.

Some of them were so busy that attempts  to speak to them were unsuccessful because they were on the ground appealing to prospective voters. One of the voters in the Ablekuma West, who gave his name only as Tieko, said some of the voters had at least two different candidates visiting their homes daily.

He said most of the  aspirants were using popular and respected faces in the constituencies to solicit votes. “Personally, I have received about three candidates asking me to vote for them,” Tieko said.

Asked who he intended to vote for, he said he was yet to decide since all of them appeared capable to lead the constituency into the 2016 elections. A voter in the Korle Klottey constituency said, “I will vote for the person who will address the basic development needs in my area”.

According to him, he would not allow any monetary reward to influence his choice of a candidate, and added that “if I am offered the money, I will take it but will not let it influence me”.