NDC falls short of one million vote target in Ashanti

True to the prediction by the Reformed Patriotic Democrats in February 2015 that the one million votes targeted by the National Democratic Congress (NDC) in Ashanti region was a joke, the party failed to garner enough votes to achieve its target.

President Mahama, during a tour of the region in November, indicated that the NDC would win additional nine parliamentary seats in addition to the one million vote target in the region.

The NDC had hoped that the electorate in Ashanti would vote on the basis of performance, hence the 13 parliamentary seats and one million votes’ target.

The President had also predicted a 54%-57% victory but the NDC lost two of the seats at Ahafo Ano North (Tepa) and Adansi South (New Edubiase), maintaining only three at Ejura-Sekyedumasi, Asawase and Sekyere Afram Plains (Drobonso), securing about 500,000 votes in Ashanti region, with the president securing 4,713,277 (44.40%) of 10,615,361 of the total valid votes cast in the just ended polls.

The Vice President, Paa Kwesi Bekoe Amissah Arthur, swayed by the seeming teeming supporters of the NDC, during a campaign tour of the Ashanti, also predicted that the NDC could garner 1.5 million votes or more.

Meanwhile Issah Alhassan also reports that the Ashanti Regional Executives of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) are currently licking their wounds after failing woefully to attain their much talked about One Million Votes Agenda.

The regional branch of the NDC has been badly bruised following its failure to achieve their audacious target of securing thirty percent of total vote cast in the region.

Not only did the party fail to achieve its target, its performance in the December 7 elections fell far below the previous 28.5% in the previous elections.

The ruling party, in early 2014, launched ‘Operation One Million Votes’ in Ashanti, seeking to bolster the over 600,000 votes attained in the 2012 elections and winning additional six seats to the existing four.

Even though their main opponents, the New Patriotic Party (NPP) led by its Chairman, Mr. Bernard Antwi Boasiako, had consistently called their bluff and described the target as laughable, the ruling party stuck to its guns and ‘stubbornly’ revised the figure upward to 1.5million votes.

But it appears the executives of the ruling party were only tickling themselves and laughing as their performance in last Wednesday’s polls was nothing short of embarrassment.

Even before the Electoral Commission releases the official figures, The Chronicle can authoritatively state that the NDC may attain less than 40% of its 1.5million target.

The party has additionally seen its share of the parliamentary seats reduced from four to three; having lost both New Edubiase and AhafoAno North seats to the NPP.

It, however, managed to win back the Ejura Sekyedumase seat and narrowly maintained the Asawase and Sekyere Afram Plains seats.

But information available to The Chronicle indicates that the defeated NPP Candidate for Asawase, Alhaji Alidu Seidu, is considering going to court to challenge the results which he alleged were manipulated.

What is, however, clear is that the ruling party met its match in the person of the NPP regional chairman, Mr. Bernard Antwi Boasiako, aka Chairman Wontumi, whose hard work and resilience thwarted their efforts.

It would be recalled that Mr. Kwabena Adjei, the founder and 2008 Presidential Candidate of the Reformed Patriotic Democrats (RPD) on February 28, 2015 said, as published in The Chronicle then, that the one million votes targeted by the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) in the Ashanti region in the 2016 elections is a joke.

Mr. Adjei, also known as Bambata, said NDC could not even achieve 25% votes mark at the polls let alone maintain the previous 28% votes record.

“I can bet on my life that NDC cannot bag 1,000 votes here in Ashanti. Their (NDC) claim is a joke” he said and explained that the electorate is simply disappointed in President Mahama’s administration for messing the once vibrant economy under President Kufuor.

He said the NDC is fast losing grounds in Ashanti region and pointed to cracks at its front and explaining that the NDC had destroyed almost all the good things the Kufuor administration put in place to improve upon the lot of the ordinary Ghanaian.

“Almost all the social interventions introduced by President Kufuor for the benefit of the ordinary Ghanaian have collapsed under the NDC”.

The RPD founder had mentioned the School Feeding Programme (SFP), National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) and the Metro Mass Transit (MMT), the mass spray of Cocoa, abandoning of the affordable housing project, the Sofoline Interchange project which, which on completion would serve four regions, maternal care for pregnant women, the National.

Youth Employment Programme (NYEP), the capitation grant and the Metro Mass Transit with free bus riding for school children, as interventions which were institutionalized by the Kufuor government but are currently shadows of their glorious past.

Mr. Adjei blamed NDC’s failure and poor showing on the caliber of some ministers described as novices in the art of governance and not matured enough to practice as politicians let alone be entrusted with positions in government.