The Greater Accra Region has become one of the key areas to monitor in the December polls because the two major political parties in the country – the governing National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) are gearing to fight for supremacy in the region.
Previous electoral results suggest the party that wins majority of parliamentary seats in the Region, subsequently wins the national elections.
Therefore the two parties have made some audacious projections and adopted some strategies to win more votes in the region.
Both parties are seeking to win about 25 parliamentary seats in the region and garner huge votes for their presidential candidates – President John Mahama, NDC and Nana Akufo-Addo, NPP.
Out of the 34 seats in the region, the NDC and the NPP control 20 and 14 respectively while in the presidential race, John Mahama in the 2012 election had 52.31% and Akufo-Addo, 46.92.
NPP launches regional campaign in Tema
The NPP over the weekend launched its Greater Accra Regional campaign in Tema in a bid to take hold of nine more parliamentary seats and increase Nana Addo’s vote margin to 58%.
Throwing more light on their plan on the Citi Breakfast Show, the Greater Regional Chairman of the NPP, Ishmael Ashitey said the party is doing everything possible to meet the target.
“We are confident of achieving the target because of the policies that we’ve put into our campaign and the number of people we’ve sent to the field who are working and working very well and we are monitoring the activities and have been researching in the region and are very confident.”
“We lost about 8 constituencies marginally and we are confident that from the efforts we are putting in there, it is likely that we can get those numbers.
When we do that then all that we have to fight for is only three constituencies. So it is not something we cannot achieve, we are looking at it and we are working towards that,” Mr. Ashitey added.
He also said they have corrected past mistakes to merit more than 25 seats in the region.
Meanwhile, the NDC which is also targeting some 60% of the presidential votes in the Region is hopeful it will meet its target.
Our targets are achievable – NDC
The NDC’s Greater Accra Regional Chairman, Ade Coker also speaking on the Citi Breakfast Show, said their targets are achievable.
“Greater Accra is a battle ground and we are very positive…we’ve always won Greater Accra. This time round, we are very positive, the conditions that are available to us indicate that we are going to get exactly that.”
Ade Coker also noted that they are solving problems in areas they are weak at.
“I go on the ground, I’ve been doing house to house for the past month and I know what is on the ground. And I know and feel the enthusiasm of the people on the ground so where there are mistakes we are correcting them. Where there are problems we are taking care of that. So as far as we are concerned we are positive on our foresight.”
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