Turmoil within NPP disturbing — Party youth
The Communications Officer of the Mataheko Electoral Area Youth Wing of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Mr Gerald Nettey, has said the recent turmoil in the party is disturbing.
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He said it was sad that while the grassroots supporters were galvanising support for the party for the upcoming 2016 general elections, the party leadership was divided in opinion.
“ I will just plead that this is a very crucial time for all of us to come together and put our differences, as well as personal interests aside, focus and make sure that the agenda and objective of the party is achieved at the end of the day”, he stated.
Mr Nettey expressed these sentiments when he spoke to the Daily Graphic on what the youth wing of the party at Matakeho was doing to ensure that the party won both the presidential and parliamentary elections in 2016.
He was joined by Mr Enock Sackyi, the Mataheko Youth Wing Vice Chairman, and Madam Ellen Akua Baidoo, the Mataheko Youth Wing Organis
Inauguration of youth wings
He said already, they had inaugurated six youth wings within the Ablekuma Central Constituency and would be adding the seventh one this Sunday.
That, he said, formed part of efforts to decentralise the activities of the party in the area by bringing more people on board to join the campaign of bringing change in the constituency.
To that effect, he said the wing had been able to bring together about 100 people who on a daily basis were putting together some strategies and campaign initiatives to ensure that the party came back to power in 2016.
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Unite for 2016
However, he said the work of the grassroots supporters seemed to be in vain as they constantly woke up to news reports on disagreements among the national executive of the party when they (grassroots) were galvanising support for the party.
Mr Nettey, therefore, said it was high time the party hierarchy united with a common goal to win the 2016 general elections saying, “We are doing our best to ensure that our parliamentary candidate wins the election and Nana Akufo Addo gets a popular vote in the constituency”.
“It is, therefore, our wish that as young men and women trying to galvanise support for the party, our leaders at the top will also do their best to see us through because we are only doing what we can do at our level”, he added.
He also called on the leadership of the party to bring all factions together and have a united front because “if we have a divided house, we can never stand.”
Vote pattern in the constituency
The Ablekuma Central Constituency since 1992 had been fairly represented in Parliament by both the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the NPP.
In 1992, the constituency was represented by Dr Victor Agadzi in Parliament until it was taken over in 1996 by Mr Clement Samuel Crabbe of the NPP who won by 30,158 votes representing 32.3 per cent against the NDC opponent, Mr Ismail Bawa who polled 28,952 votes representing 31 per cent.
However, upon the demise of Mr Crabbe after two years in parliament, a bye–election was conducted by the Electoral Commission in 1999 which saw Mr Victor Okuley Nortey representing the constituency from that period until 2004 when it was taken over by Mr Theophilus Tettey-Chaie of the NDC in 2008 .
Mr Tettey-Chaie has since then represented the constituency in Parliament but did not contest to represent the party again in the just-ended NDC parliamentary primaries.
The mantle has been taken over by Alhaji Halidu Haruna who won by polling 2,462 votes out of 5,783 total votes cast.
His other contenders were, Peter Boamah Otokunor who came close with 2,219 votes, while Mr Bashar Harsey polled 444 votes.
Alhaji Halidu would be facing a close competition from Mr Ebenezer Nii Naah Nartey, the parliamentary candidate of the NPP in the 2016 general elections.
“Gateway to Flagstaff House”
For his part, Mr Sackyi said the constituency had always been seen as the “Gateway to the Flagstaff House” because it housed a number of party supporters who religiously voted for the NPP.
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“Therefore, being the gateway to the Flagstaff house, we are using the wards created to send the message to our supporters to campaign for the party to win the general election in 2016”, he said.
Additionally, he said the party’s flag bearer, Nana Addo Dankwah Akufo Addo had a mission to make the Ghanaian economy a resilient one to benefit every citizen, hence the need to be united to make that mission succeed.
He said it would be an unforgivable move on the part of the NPP not to win power to save Ghanaians from the hardship they were currently in and added that, “Ghanaians have their hopes on the NPP and if we do not win power in 2016, they will never forgive us”.