The 2016 presidential candidate of the New Patriotic Party, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, has urged his party’s international branches to support, ahead of the 2016 elections, constituencies where the margin of victory for either the NDC or NPP was less than 10% in 2012.
This support, according to Nana Akufo-Addo, should be in the form of ideas, resources and personnel to these marginal constituencies, and should be done in collaboration with the party’s General Secretary, Kwabena Agyepong, and the Party secretariat in Accra.
On the final day of the NPP’s International Conference, on Saturday, October 17, in Amsterdam, the NPP flagbearer explained that there are at least 118 constituencies out of the total of 275, where the NPP believes the 2016 elections would swing.
In addition to this, he added that there are 76 constituencies the NPP have won and lost in presidential elections, stressing that “this tells you and I that with the right organization, right strategies, right funding, right implementation, right message and targeted allocation of our efforts, we can win comfortably.”
Six months to win 2016
With only 12 months to the holding of the 2016 elections, as per the EC’s draft calendar, Nana Akufo-Addo stated that this leaves the NPP with about six months to do most of the preparations required to secure the declaration that eluded the party in the last two elections.
“The election will be won or lost on what we are able to achieve in the next six months,” he said.
Towards this end, the NPP flagbearer noted that he has identified some 7 key things the party needs to embark on in the next 6 months.
The NPP, he said, will steadfastly push for the implementation of the required electoral reforms, get the issue for a new, credible biometric electoral register urgently resolved and the process for its compilation started on time, as well as begin the all-important task of recruiting and training the army of 120,000 people who will work as polling and counting agents on election day for our party.
“Strengthen and sharpen the communications tools of the party from bottom to top; organize the volunteers who will canvass for the party in communities up and down the country; build a system that will stand against any attempt to rig the election; and, equally importantly, raise the funds required to prosecute an efficient, successful campaign”, he added constitute the other important things the NPP has to do to win the election.
Rise and Build Tour useful
On the completion of the 1st phase of his “Rise and Build Tour”, which Nana Akufo-Addo described as useful, he said it has “made me see and feel how eager the Ghanaian people are to have us come back to office to get Ghana working again.”
Secondly, he added that “it made me see how committed our party people on the ground are to the work ahead of us. What they are looking for are direction and the resources to work.”
His promise to members of the party across the 10 regions of the country in this respect, he said, will be to give the party direction.
“We may not have access to the resources the ruling party may have, but I am fully confident that the little that we get we will put it to use efficiently,” he maintained.
Stop talking at each other
The NPP flagbearer, once again, reiterated his appeal to NPP members to desist from running to the media with issues concerning the party, but should, rather, employ the use of internal mechanisms available to the party in the resolution of differences.
“We must stop talking at each other. We must put aside our personal egos. And we must forget about what we may not like about each other and just do what has brought us all together: to work together and win power to do something productive with it for the benefit of Ghana and Ghanaians,” he said.
The NPP flagbearer continued, “It is that simple. It is nothing personal. I don’t have to like the colour of your shirt or socks. I just have to be committed to the goal of the party. What we stand to gain by working together for success is far greater than what we can’t stand about each other, if any.”
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