The Presidential candidate of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Nana Akufo Addo has suggested that the party’s fortunes in the Volta Region in elections may improve in 2016.
The NPP has consistently performed poorly in the Volta Region – a stronghold of the governing National Democratic Congress (NDC) than in any of the other regions in the general elections.
[contextly_sidebar id=”FV96bLXsId7vcqLB3sgi4JUy1tORLE8O”]In the last elections, the NPP could only garner 12.9% of the total votes to the NDC’s 85.47 percent.
The situation has been similar in the NPP’s stronghold of the Ashanti Region even though President Mahama got about 28.35% in the last elections in 2012.
However, the NDC has recently claimed that it had made appreciable gains in the Ashanti Region and several officials of the party have expressed optimism of getting a million votes in the Ashanti Region, which would be a record tally for the party.
Nana Addo also believes the people in the Volta Region are beginning to warm up to the NPP after 7 years under what he has previously described as a failed NDC administration.
According to him, the previously hostile attention members of the NPP received on campaign visits to the region has been replaced by a more welcoming reception.
He told party members in Manchester, UK: “Recently I visited the Volta Region for a funeral. I was stunned by the difference in the reception I got this time. In 1992 when I went there and our team was pelted with stones and since then it hasn’t really been much better. It has been quite glacial and hostile,” he reminisced.
“When people on the streets of Ho recognised who were were, they shouted ‘Nana oh Nana’. If that is what is going on there then it is a good sign for the future,” he added.
By: Edwin Kwakofi/citifmonline.com/Ghana