GHANA 2012 ELECTION: TOPY TO HELP NDC RETAIN POWER

GHANA 2012 ELECTION: TOPY TO HELP NDC RETAIN POWER

Edward Adeti’s Report, Upper East, Ghana

Mr. Horace Ankrah, NDC UK Chairman

A branch of a youth-centred group, the Team of Popular Youth (TOPY), has been inaugurated in the Upper East Region of Ghana to help the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) clinch another 4-year term in 2012 through job creation.

The new chapter was the fourth to be inducted after branches had been installed in the Greater Accra, Eastern and Upper West Regions.

Launching the branch in Bolgatanga, Mr. Horace Ankrah, Founder of the team and United Kingdom (UK) Branch Chairman of the NDC, said the posture of the team he founded was to "create jobs for the youths with the intention that the same youths will queue unflinchingly behind President John Evans Atta Mills and Vice President John Dramani Mahama in the 2012 polls.”

Thousands of youths in the region are expected to be trained and offered jobs in farming, hairdressing, carpentry as well as tie and dye ventures among others. According to Mr. Ankrah, TOPY is registered and does not belong to any individual but to the NDC as one party. TOPY, he added, would engage the youths of every region only in ventures that are considered most viable and most suitable in the respective regions.  

He disclosed that TOPY had secured acres of land in some other regions to commence agricultural activities and expressed the readiness of the group to purchase fifty acres of land for agriculture in the Upper East Region. So far, 230 women in the region have also been brought on board to be trained in sewing and weaving under the TOPY initiative whilst some traditional rulers in the region have expressed interest in releasing lands for the TOPY-run activities.

“The youth are the future of the nation. There is, therefore, the need for them to be well organised, well resourced and well brought up with a sense of excellent leadership. We have a youth-focused Government in the Mills-Mahama Administration. TOPY is committed to complimenting the efforts of the Government in practically promoting the welfare of the youth,” Mr. Ankrah stated.

The Founder, who is also a philanthropist, advised the youths of the party to abide by the constitution of the NDC and urged them to persuade more election-eligible Ghanaians who were yet to register to do so and vote for the NDC in 2012. “Tell them what the NDC has achieved. Tell them about the plans we have got in store. Announce what are we are about to do. Tell them the NDC is the only party that has the youth at heart and that the NDC is the only party that is truly democratic as we witnessed at the Sunyani Congress. TOPY will always promote the NDC. We will ensure that the NDC retains power. We will ensure that we capture every first-time voter,” he assured.

The Upper East Regional Chairman of TOPY, Mr. Gilbert Atanga, in his welcome address said the campaign had started and vowed that the NDC youths in the region would leave no stone unturned in 2012 to ensure that the party chalked up overwhelming victories in the presidential and parliamentary elections in the region. He was particularly delighted that the job-creating programme initiated by TOPY would not only secure a win for the NDC next year but would also help tackle poverty and food insecurity.

Mr. Harry Epsona Ayamga, former Municipal Chief Executive (MCE) for Bolgatanga who chaired the inauguration, stressed that the NDC would remain a formidable party in Ghana’s history. The NDC, he said, has “the best ideology that caters for its grassroots, and not the money-laundering ideology.” Mr. Ayamga noted that President Mills deserved commendations for continuing with the unfinished projects of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) as promised and building 23 more school blocks in Bolgatanga alone within 2 and a half years alongside roads, boreholes and streetlights.

He warned the youths against detractors who were out to deceive young people and asked them to step up the campaign so that the 2012 victory would not elude the party. The inauguration was also used to introduce and swear-in national and regional executives of the group. Mr. Alagskomah Asakeya Noble, one of the region’s heavyweight symbols of NDC who oversaw the swearing-in of the executives, expressed confidence in the competence of the executives but cautioned them against complacency.  

GHANA 2012 ELECTION: IT IS PELE VERSUS LEO, WOYONGO VERSUS ADDA AGAIN

GHANA 2012 ELECTION: IT IS PELE VERSUS LEO, WOYONGO VERSUS ADDA AGAIN

Edward Adeti’s Report, Upper East

Mr. Abuga Pele

Parliamentary primaries of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) in the Upper East Region have ended smoothly and, by the delegates’ irrevocable choices, the 2012 parliamentary elections will see bitter old rivals return to the polling rings for either a repeat or a reverse of the 2008 outcomes.

At Chiana-Paga, 2008 parliamentary candidate and overall Boss of the National Youth Employment Programme (NYEP), Mr. Abuga Pele, was too much to handle for his sole contender, Mr. Thomas Adda Dalu, who is the District Chief Executive (DCE) for Kassena-Nankana West. Although it was 460 of the expected 461 delegates that showed up to vote and yet 2 ballot papers were thrown out, Mr. Pele gathered 312 (68.1%) votes whilst Mr. Dalu’s years of fatiguing campaign ended on the day with 146 (31.9%) votes.

“I’m back. The NPP should get ready for 2012,” Mr. Pele, with the crushed DCE symbolically standing beside him, announced in front of a jubilation-possessed crowd of umbrella-tagged supporters at Paga after officials of the Electoral Commission officially had declared him winner and candidate for the much-awaited next year’s elections.

A calm-looking Mr. Pele, who in 2008 had the seat snatched from under him by the New Patriotic Party (NPP)’s Leo Alowe Kabah arguably due to the split votes that Mr. Rudolph Amenga-Etego pulled away from the NDC when he stood independent after his painful though convincing thumping from Mr. Pele in the controversial primaries, told the cheering crowd of his readiness to bring everybody on board this time to face the NPP head-on for the coveted seat.

NDC’s Mr. Pele had maintained an average of over thirteen-thousand-vote win since 1996 until Mr. Amenga-Etego broke away from the NDC and carried off a chunk of 6,567 (23.6%) votes in 2008, leaving Mr. Pele with 7,380 (26.5%) votes as Mr. Kabah’s 8,323 (29.9%) annexed the seat for the NPP for the first time in the constituency since 1992.

Eleven kilometres from Paga, next-door Navrongo Central Constituency saw delegates sharing the votes in an uneven ratio that left an extremely sour taste in the mouths of visually impaired Mr. Jacob Adongo Atule and Mr. Samson Chiragia. The Upper East Regional Minister and 2008 parliamentary candidate, Mr. Mark Owen Woyongo, picked up 248 (68.5%) votes from the ballot box whilst only 5 (1.4%) votes and 109 (30.1%) valid ballot papers went to Mr. Atule and Mr. Chiragia respectively. It was a grave reality for some shocked observers at Navrongo as the votes gathered by sympathy-deserving Atule and popular Chiragia put together still did not measure up to half of the figure grabbed by self-assured Woyongo.

Bearing in mind that the victory means another crowd-pulling second match with NPP’s strongman Mr. Joseph Kofi Adda next year, Mr. Woyongo pitched his victory speech on the need to earnestly reunite members that broke up into factions in the buildup towards the primaries “to show the NPP the exit in 2012.”  

He entreated the defeated contenders to support his 2012 campaign with the same enthusiasm that they individually had put up for themselves ahead of the just-ended primaries to ensure victory for the NDC. Whilst being mobbed and hugged by a long queue of delighted supporters including those who prior to the primaries cautiously had been evasive but later could no longer hide their ecstasy and backing from the public after the primaries, Mr. Woyongo spoke about his conviction of a brighter 2012 at Navrongo when he said supporters of the other political parties had continued to defect to the NDC in the constituency. He urged the NDC constituents to welcome such defectors with open arms “as they continue to seek social protection and economic shade under the all-embracing umbrella.”

Mr. Woyongo with 13,224 (41.7%) votes lost in 2008 to Mr. Adda who obtained 14,354 (45.2%) votes. He said the NDC lost the election that year partly because it lacked the financial stamina required to unseat an incumbent Member of Parliament (MP) whose party was also in power. He was full of confidence that the “firm control of resources” by the now-ruling NDC would translate the “ongoing better infrastructural developments in Navrongo” into “a double victory” in 2012.

At Bawku Central, Harvard-trained lawyer and Deputy Minister for Education, Mr. Mahama Ayariga, maintained his 2008 parliamentary candidature by beating his lone rival with a several-count gap. He pulled 319 (76.7%) votes whilst Mr. Issahaku Bukari obtained only 97 (23.3%) votes. Mr. Ayariga’s victory sets him up in another too-good-to-miss parliamentary brawl in 2012 with NPP’s Adamu Daramani who elbowed him out of the seat in 2008. Mr. Ayariga trailed behind Mr. Daramani with a controversial wide gap in 2008 when he attracted 17,385 (46.1%) votes in the main contest that gave the NPP 20,157 (53.4%) votes.

Mr. Noah Bernard Azure emerged winner by a hair’s breadth at Binduri with 92 (31.8%) votes, ending Mr. Stephen Atubiga’s much-publicised dream of standing for an election into Parliament next year on the NDC ticket. American-tongued Mr. Atubiga, who until recently had lived for years in the United States of America, returned home to 90 (31.1%) votes.  The other contenders, Dr. Robert Baba Kubanab-Lem, Mr. Richard Akumba and Mr. Daniel Adoliba, were rewarded with 69 (23.9%), 31 (10.7%) and 7 (2.4%) votes in that order.  

The “orphan constituencies only” primaries which were held on the same day in the first zone that included Upper East, Upper West, Northern, Brong Ahafo and Ashanti Regions excluded the PNC-held Builsa South in the Upper East. This is due to the bilateral accord in Parliament between the NDC and the People’s National Convention (PNC), the Upper Regional Secretary of the NDC, Donatus Akamugri, told the Daily Dispatch in Bolgatanga.