Mills touts his trustworthiness

Accra, Dec. 22. GNA - NDC Leader and Presidential Candidate, Professor John Evans Atta Mills, is asking the people of Ghana to vote for a President they can trust and that is him. According to Prof. Atta Mills, the second round was a contest between himself and Nana Akufo-Addo, the NPP candidate, and not a contest between the NDC and the NPP.

"The NDC and NPP contest is over. It is now about John Evans Atta Mills and Akufo-Addo and I want the people of Ghana to judge us by what we stand for," he said in messages as he campaigned in the Western Region.

A statement issued by his Campaign Office said Prof. Atta Mills was taking his campaign to the Western Region after a very successful tour of the Central Region.

"I am the Leader of a party that has welfarism and people-centred approach to managing the affairs of state as its core values. Compare that to Akufo-Addo who is leading a party that believes in property-owning democracy and holds on to the maxim that the rich must get richer whiles the poor get poorer," Prof. Atta Mills said. "Especially for those of you in the Western Region, God has blessed you with a lot of Ghana's natural resources and with the oil find, you a need a President who will not enrich himself and his cronies with your resources whiles you the people who should benefit from the resources wallow in abject poverty."

In line with his pledge to, within a 100 days, present a bill to Parliament to review downwards tariffs and taxes, Prof. Atta Mills has been stating that the NDC government will bring relief to Ghanaians. Speaking specifically to the issue of the high duties that importers pay at the ports, Prof Mills has promised that his government will reduce import duties.

"I am a tax expert and I know it for a fact that it is not about the quantum of revenue that is generated; it is about how efficiently the revenue is managed that is why I will not hesitate to bring relief to Ghanaians by reviewing downwards taxes and tariffs." Prof. Mills has also pledged to make sure that private lotto operators stay in business.

He recalled how it was during the time of President Jerry John Rawlings that private lotto operators were licensed and promised to give them back their legal freedom to operate. According to Prof. Atta Mills, the lame and desperate attempt by the NPP to create the impression that private lotto operators will be given back their license, is nothing but an attempt to score cheap political points.

"Is it not the NPP that has destroyed the private lotto business? So if Akufo-Addo says that he is going to move in the same direction as President Kufuor, why should anybody take the NPP serious when it is now paying lip service to private lotto operators?"

"The NDC has done it before, and we will do it again by allowing private lotto operators to function within the ambit of the law." "Professor Mills has been receiving rousing welcomes everywhere he has visited and just as happened in the Central Region, the Western Region is also pledging maximum support for Professor Mills and come December 28 there is no reason to doubt that the Western Region will double its support for the Better Ghana agenda of Professor Mills and for the CHANGE process to be completed," the statement said.

Professor Mills has also been thanking the people of the Western Region for giving the NDC majority of the seats and asking them to turn out in their numbers on December 28 and vote massively for change.