NPP will never rig elections- Akufo-Addo

Cape Coast, Aug. 22, GNA - The New Patriotic Party {NPP} presidential aspirant, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, has said the party would never rig the December election as is being speculated by its detractors.

He said election "is not war" but a peaceful process for people to elect those they deem fit to lead them and therefore the NPP would continue to pursue peace and not engage in any acts that would polarise the country. Nana Akufo-Addo said this when he met some fishermen at Idun, a fishing community in Cape Coast, on Thursday as part of his one-week tour of the Central Region.

He said the unity of the nation was of paramount importance to his campaign team and they therefore have shunned tribalism and politics of insult and acrimony.

Nana Akufo-Addo said the electorate would vote for the party that can perform better and is an achiever and that the NPP had proved itself and therefore there was no need for it to rig the election in order to win.

He urged supporters and sympathisers of the party to desist from acts that would bring the name of the party into disrepute or bring division among Ghanaians, stressing," we are one people be it Ashantis, Ewes or northerners".

Nana Akufo-Addo told them that the issue of big trawlers that had been the bane of fishermen would be addressed under his administration. He said the Ghana Navy needed patrol boats to monitor their activities on the high seas and that his administration would secure funds to address the problem.

The NPP flag bearer also met other identifiable groups in the Cape Coast metropolis such as market women, artisans and drivers during which he spoke about his plans to improve their wellbeing if the party retained power.

He told the artisans to upgrade themselves through training for them to be skilful because they needed to fit into the "new Ghana" that is coming.

He said top on his agenda if he should secure power would be to propel the country into an industrial hub where skilful artisans would be needed to take up jobs in industries and asked them to take advantage of government facilities to improve small/medium scale enterprises. This includes a 25 million-dollar UNIDO loan secured by the government to assist in the training of artisans. Earlier, the NPP flag bearer, together with a team of leading members of the party including Mr Allan Kyerematen, Mr Yaw Osafo-Maafo and Professor Dominic Fobih, paid a courtesy call on paramount chiefs of the region at the House of Chiefs where he solicited their support to enable him to move forward the development agenda of the country. He traced the political history of the country to the region and told the chiefs that the NPP government had brought a lot of development to the Region. Nana Akufo-Addo said he had drafted a proposal to turn every constituency into a district to make local government more meaningful and accessible to all Ghanaians and regional demarcations would be reviewed.

He told them about what he said were "special plans" for the Northern and Volta regions while the tourism industry in the Central Region would be well developed and a tourism training school established to train skilled people for the industry.

Mr Kyerematen said never in the history of the country has any government brought development to the region and urged people in the region to vote massively for the party.

Also on the team are Grace Omaboe, popularly known as "Maame Dokono" and Okatakyie Ward, who was the special advisor to the NDC regional chairman and a member of Professor John Atta Mills' campaign team, who has defected to NPP.

Mr Ato Amponsah Dadzie the parliamentary candidate for Cape Coast was also introduced to the gathering.