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Politics of Wednesday, 15 December 2004

Source: --

Minorty Parties CPP, PNC Made Strides at Polls

- Despite Mahama, Aggudey no show
Chronicle -- The two parliamentary aspirants of the People's Convention Party (PNC) and Convention People's Party (CPP), Macdonald Kobbs Tongo and Sarfohen Araba Bentsi Enchill put up a good show in the just ended polls despite the failure of their parties' presidential candidates to campaign in the municipality.

Tongo, the PNC candidate who was not known in the municipality had increased previous the party's votes of 300 to 567 without mounting a campaign. The electorate had noticed his posters only a few days to the polls.

Four days before the polls, Dr Edward Mahama had held journalists to ransom for almost three hours after failing to honour a press conference, which purportedly, might have announced his presence in Cape-Coast.

Although Dr Mahama was in town, he did not attend the press conference. Rather, he appeared in Elubo in the Western region the next day and interacted with school children.

Tongo's impressive performance might have been attributed to his regular contribution to radio discussions and possibly due to the gradual emergence of the party in the region. CPP's Bentsi Enchill moved from the previous tally of 800 to 2497 votes, having endorsed a "skirt and blouse" voting pattern by appealing to supporters of the two political parties, the NDC and NPP to vote for their respective presidential candidates and consider voting for her if they had the development of Cape-Coast at heart.

Her plea did not yield to the wishes of the electorate as they voted for NPP's candidate, Christine Churcher who scored a hat trick in her political career as Member of Parliament for Cape-Coast.

Enchill's votes might have been necessitated by the launch of the Phillip Quaicoo Educational Fund, which was meant to assist children in the municipality.

Also, the CPP aspirant's vigorous media interviews worked to perfection but could not ultimately convince the electorate.