NPP to recruit 400,000 volunteers

IN line with its Victory 2012 philosophy of running a “total grassroots campaign”, the New Patriotic Party will form a 20-member campaign team in each of the 21,000 odd existing polling station areas across the country.

This translates into a nationwide official canvassing team of more than 420,000 volunteers.

According to Boakye Kyeremanteng Agyarko, “No party in Ghana has the width and depth of structures that we have. So we intend to use the structures and personnel optimally and work hard and smart for victory in December 2012.”

Already, the party has five executives per polling station area, comprising of chairperson, secretary, organizer, women’s organizer, and youth organizer.

Fifteen others will be selected to join, complimenting the personnel of the existing structure.

10 of them will be selected by the 2012 Presidential Candidate and five by the Parliamentary Candidate of each of the 230 constituencies. The message from the Campaign Manager to the candidates is simple, “select those who will do the job and not just those you like.”

The 2008 voter register pegged the number of registered voters at 13,278,941. Therefore, on an average each of the 21,032 recognised polling stations in Ghana has an average of 631 registered voters within its catchment area.

This makes each member of the 20 polling station canvassing team responsible for approximately 32 registered voters, making it easier for the party to deliver its message directly and deploy resources efficiently.

Boakye Agyarko, Nana Akufo-Addo’s Campaign Manager, makes the point that the 2012 NPP campaign “will be scientific and intimate.”

In line with this, theNew Statesman can exclusively reveal that in July 2011, Nana Addo will begin a nationwide tour, which is likely to keep him out of the capital for the best part of what is left of the year.

“Nana Addo will travel to the towns and villages to meet the people and listen. He wants to do more listening this year and return to the people next year with his vision and programmes,” says Boakye Agyarko.

“He wants to listen to their concerns, their fears, their hopes, their dreams. Next year, we hope to tell them how we plan to respond to what they told us during our interactions with them,” he explains.

Tomorrow, Nana Addo takes his “All Hands on deck” exercise to the Eastern Region, followed by the Western Region Friday.

The purpose of the tour has been three-fold, first to congratulate the party, generally, for managing the successful parliamentary primaries nationwide.

Second, to foster unity among the party fellowship ahead of the 2012 exercise. Third, to announce to the party the campaign structure for 2012.

The constituency and regional officers of the party will play the leadership role of supervisors and monitors of the grassroots campaign. The parliamentary candidate will serve as the chairman of the constituency campaign team, with the constituency Chairman as his vice.

All constituency officers, chairperson of constituency council of elders and 5 others, to be selected by the flagbearer in consultation with the parliamentary candidate, will form the campaign team in the constituency.

At the regional level, the regional campaign team will be chaired by the Regional Chairman, with the vice chairperson being selected by the Presidential Candidate. The Presidential Candidate will also nominate 5 persons to this campaign team.

In addition to this, parliamentary candidates in the region will also nominate 3 members to the regional campaign team.