The description of the ruling National Democratic Congress’s (NDC) mantra of “One million votes in Ashanti” in the 2016 general election as a mirage has ruffled the feathers of the NDC in the region.
Nana Akufo-Addo, the New Patriotic Party (NPP) presidential candidate for the 2016 general election, has said the NDC’s target is nothing more than a mirage, which would not see the light of day, and assured NPP faithful that the party’s leadership has targeted nothing less than 85 per cent of the popular votes in the Ashanti Region, reassuring them that “we will get it in 2016.”
However, in a swift rebuttal, the NDC in the region said Nana Akufo-Addo was “day- dreaming to have made such a wishful pronouncement.”
Few months after the 2012 general election, the NDC, which jumped from 400,000 votes in 2008 to 600,000 in 2012, said their target was to secure one million votes in a region described as the stronghold of the NPP.
Background
In a meeting with some party members from the Ashanti Region on Wednesday in Accra, Nana Akufo-Addo assured NPP faithful that the party’s leadership had targeted nothing less than 85 per cent of the popular vote in the Ashanti Region.
Nana Akufo-Addo made the declaration when the Member of Parliament (MP) for Subin, together with his constituency Chairman, Mr Francis Boamah, and some 200 female members of the NPP from the constituency, made up of polling station executives and others, called on him at his Nima residence on Wednesday, April 8, 2015.
“Ghana is retrogressing under the Mahama government. All the gains chalked up by President Kufuor have been eroded within six years of the NDC government taking over the reins of office. We, as members of the NPP, have a duty to make sure Ghana works again, and we have no choice but to win the 2016 election,” Nana Akufo-Addo declared.
On his party’s upcoming parliamentary primaries, he urged party faithful to conduct themselves and the process in a manner devoid of rancour or mudslinging and give all aspirants the opportunity to present their vision.
NDC youth amused
In a strongly-worded statement signed by the Ashanti Regional Youth Organiser, Mr Brogya Genfi, the NDC defended its position to secure one million votes in the region.
It stated that it was imperative for all to appreciate that “even President John Agyekum Kufuor, the most successful leader of the Busia/Dankwa tradition, who was an indigene of Ashanti and a sitting President, could not get as much as 85 per cent of the valid votes cast in Ashanti Region in any election; never in his life! Talk less of Nana Akufo-Addo whose roots are from the Eastern Region and has no track record when it comes to Ashanti politics.”
It said Nana Akufo-Addo remained the worst performing opposition leader ever under the Fourth Republic and that his electoral record indicated a declining trend of all presidential elections that he had taken part in and 2016 would not be an exception.
“The NDC has grown from strength to strength in the Ashanti Region since 1992. The era of wicked stigmatisation against the NDC is over. In fact, the average youth from Ashanti prefers and would easily join the NDC, compared to the NPP,” the statement added.
It said the NDC youth in the Ashanti Region remained resolute to lead the battle and with the determination of the party, the operation one million votes in Ashanti in the 2016 election would be a reality.
It said the hard work of the NDC, coupled with the massive development by President John Mahama, would make the party get the one million votes or even more.
