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Member of Parliament for Gomoa Central, Hon. Rachel Appoh, has strongly denied assertions attributed to her that she personally paid monies to delegates to sway them from voting against President Mahama in the just ended presidential and parliamentary primaries held by the ruling party over the weekend.

It was earlier reported in the media that Hon. Rachel Appoh, was forced to clamp down on the decision by some members in her constituency who were hell bent on voting ‘NO’ against President Mahama, by giving out cash to them to change their decision.  

The former Deputy Minister for Gender, Children and Social Protection, emphatically told Peacefmonline.com in an interview that the popularity of President Mahama in the area remains intact and was startled to hear and read reports that she had to dole out money to delegates to prevent them from casting a ‘NO’ vote against a “hardworking president”.

Reacting to the misconstrued news, the NDC MP stated that the only expenses she incurred was catering for the travelling arrangements of NDC members who had to travel from afar within her constituency to vote at designated polling centers.
  
"It is not that they were going to vote 'No' and I gave them money to vote 'Yes'," she clarified. 

From the look of things and the overwhelming support the NDC received in the area during last Saturday’s election, Hon. Rachel Appoh boldly predicted that it wouldn’t come to her as a surprise if President Mahama scores between 60-70% in the 2016 general elections.

Mahama received an overwhelming 95% endorsement, having polled 1,199,118 'Yes' votes representing 95.10%.

Out of the over two million party members expected to cast their votes, 61,836 voted 'No' representing 4.90% in relation to President Mahama’s candidature in 265 out of 275 constituencies.

However speaking to Peacefmonline.com Rachel Appoh disclosed that one major factor which could have resulted to party members not voting for President Mahama was the LEAP programme.

According to her the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection have continually refused to enroll her constituency on the programme hence there could be a retaliation from party members in the constituency.

Government has expanded the Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP) programme with the official launch of a new project christened, “LEAP 1000.”

Unlike the earlier programme which catered for the aged and the vulnerable across the country, the "LEAP 1000" project targets extremely poor pregnant women and infants below one year in some selected poor households.

The project is implemented by the Department of Social Welfare under the auspices of the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection.

The three years project is financed by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) in collaboration with the United Nation’s International Children and Emergency Fund (UNICEF).