Encouraged by the mammoth crowd of NDC supporters spanning about one-and-a-half mile who joined him for a health walk in the Asawase constituency, President Mahama says the party will exceed its one million votes target in the region.
He added that the party would also move from the current four parliamentary seats to 13 out of the 47 seats in the region which is considered the stronghold of the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP).
Mostly made up of young people in their NDC T-shirts and party paraphernalia, the health walkers started gathering at various points in the constituency around 5.30 a.m.
The crowd danced to dance-hall music blaring from very high loud speakers mounted in four different vehicles.
Led by the Member of Parliament (MP) for the constituency, Alhaji Muntaka Mubarak Muhammed, they moved from Aboabo Post Office to the Golden Temple and then to On the Run.
All this while, the milling crowd kept on increasing. When they got to Manhyia Roundabout, the crowd moved to Aboabo Station then to Asawase where President Mahama joined them.
Initially, the President wanted to get down from his vehicle to join, but the large number of the supporters was such that the he was forced to stand on top of his V8 vehicle for the rest of the journey at a snail’s pace.
All along President Mahama responded to cheers from equally large crowd of supporters who had lined up the sides of the streets shouting "JM Toaso" to wit, JM continue".
Beauty
Surprisingly, although the NPP was also having its health walk in the same area, there was no clash. What surprised many was that while some of the NPP members were using the same road but headed towards opposite direction in their NPP T-shirts and making the change sign with their fingers, their NDC counterparts passed by peacefully with their continuation sign.
President
When the crowd eventually converged on the Asawase Park, President Mahama commended the party members and supporters for their high turnout.
He explained that he decided to give pilgrims to Mecca special treatment to ensure that they did not gather at areas where they would be exposed to mosquitoes and the vagaries of the weather because that was the wish of President Mills before his demise.
He said it was for that reason that the Tamale Airport was expanded to facilitate direct flights straight from there to Mecca to save the pilgrims the inconvenience of travelling to Accra.
On development projects, he explained that the NDC government did not discriminate in sharing development projects even to areas considered as opposition stronghold, due to its policy of fair distribution of the national cake.
He stated that Kumasi being the centre of the country where traders from all around the country, including those from the neighbouring countries, come to trade was the reason it had had more than its fair share of the national cake.
<<Print>>