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Politics of Thursday, 30 September 2004

Source: GNA

Eastern Region NDC elects first woman candidate

Amafro-Akwapim (E/R), Sept. 30, GNA - Mrs Gloria Adu-Nartey, an Educationist, was on Wednesday elected as National Democratic Congress (NDC) Parliamentary Candidate for the Okere Constituency for the Election 2004.

Mrs Adu-Nartey, Headteacher of Nana Kwaku Boateng Experimental School in Koforidua, became the first female Parliamentary Candidate of the NDC to be elected in the Eastern Region for this year's election. Her only contestant, Mr David Opare sent an emissary to announce to the delegates just before the start of the elections that he had stepped down and urged all his supporters to throw their weight behind Mrs Adu-Nartey for the NDC to win back the Okere constituency seat.

In her victory speech, Mrs Adu-Nartey urged women in the Constituency to support her to win the seat so that together they could join hands with their male counterparts to develop the area. She said if elected, she would tap the potential of all the residents to help educate the children in the area so that no child would serve as house-help to others but would grow into useful citizens to replace the current adult population.

Mrs Adu-Nartey, who served as an Assembly Member of the Akwapim North District Assembly from 1996 to 1999 and acted as the Presiding Member during the period gave the assurance that when elected, she would continue with the developmental programme started by the former NDC MP for the constituency, the late Fuzzy Torbay.

She mentioned the extension of electricity to other parts of the Constituency, adding: "I would help erect all the electricity poles which were acquired by Fuzzy but were abandoned all over the villages in the constituency".

The Eastern Regional Organizer of NDC, Mr Tawiah Boateng appealed to the Electoral Commission (EC) to print the pictures of the Presidential and Parliamentary Candidates on the ballot papers for the December elections in colour.

He explained that, the black and white pictures used on the ballot papers for the 2000 District Assembly elections were in some cases not clear making it difficult for some candidates to be identified thereby causing some popular candidates to lose.

Mr Boateng called on the EC to ensure that on the Election Day, party agents at the polling stations would be positioned in a way that they could see the pictures on the voters' identity cards and the picture in the voter's registration forms to help reduce the incidence of impersonation.

He urged all those "who were carried away by the "Positive Change" slogan which had failed, to vote for the NDC."

The Eastern Regional Secretary of the NDC, Mr Anthony Gyampoh said the creation of the "window of opportunities" under which some Ghanaian students were requested to pay fees for their tertiary education in dollars was discriminatory, saying it was "never in the interest of Ghanaians from deprived areas."