NPP will win 90% of votes - constituency sec.

Obuasi, Oct.11, Chonicle -- The Obuasi Constituency Secretary of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Mr. Stephen Acquah, has predicted that his party would win about 90% of the popular votes in both the parliamentary and the presidential elections on December 7, 2004.
He said though the party was well-placed to win the elections, it would not relent in its efforts in ensuring a complete victory, adding, the party had mapped out strategies to ensure this.
The constituency secretary said this when The Chronicle called on him to solicit his view on the opinion poll, which was conducted by Shaft FM, a local radio station, which placed the independent candidate, Miss. Adelaide Borden, ahead of the NPP parliamentary candidate, Mr. Edward Ennin.
He described the poll as a sham, bogus and biased since, the phone-in segment of the programme which allowed listeners to air their views, was controlled and manipulated by pro-Adelaide Borden supporters working at the station.
He stated that some supporters of the party complained that their calls were cut off during the phone-in segment of the programme. ?Even some of our supporters whose calls were cut off during the programme had wanted to invade the premises of the station, after the programme to lodge their complaint but they were advised by the executives of the party in the constituency to stop,? he added.
Mr. Acquah described as false the claim made by the independent candidate, during the ?politalk? programme on Shaft FM that she turned 700 casual workers into permanent workers when she was the local union secretary for Anglo Gold Ashanti, adding she rather led a strike action in 1999, which nearly crippled the company as over 5,000 workers were either sacked, retrenched or made to go on redundancy, including most of the casuals who since then had been fighting the company.
He said it was during her time as the secretary of the union that a workforce of over 10,000 was reduced to 5,000, a figure he said represented the highest number of workers to be sacked by the company in its history.
He again alleged that Adelaide Borden signed a redundancy package for the workers, which had now rendered many of them paupers and added that when she was declared redundant herself after she was sacked as union secretary for mismanagement, she refused and was now fighting the company in court.
?What is she telling the workforce and the people of Obuasi? Is she telling them she is more sensible than them: how can such a person be a leader?? he asked
He called on the supporters of the party not worry about the ?so-called? poll, but rather intensify their efforts in mobilizing supporters for the party.
The NPP constituency secretary called on the electorate to vote for Edward Ennin, the party?s parliamentary candidate, since Borden was an NDC plant, adding, a vote for Adelaide Borden was a vote for the NDC.
?The people of Obuasi know vividly that she was the secretary for the Obuasi 31st December Women?s Movement and will not allow her to throw dust into their eyes,? the constituency secretary remarked, calling on party faithful to remain calm and focused to achieve a massive victory in the elections.