The National Democratic Congress (NDC) in the Eastern Region is set to launch “Project 50 -50,” which seeks to maximise votes to equal the number of votes to be obtained by the opposition New Patriotic Party in the region during the 2016 elections.
The party is, therefore, putting measures in place to make sure that that dream becomes a reality in the opposition party’s stronghold.
Among these measures are the training of party activists on how to be vigilant on election day, remain focused on the implementation of measures to be adopted, sharpening of communication skills of activists and conducting research into why the party continues to lose in the region and come out with strategies to reverse the situation.
Throwing more light on the project, the Eastern Regional Deputy Secretary of the NDC, Mr Francis Annor-Dompreh, said the project should have been launched at Kwahu during the Easter festivities but for the death of the Mpraeso Constituency communication officer who was involved in a motor accident on Holy Thursday, April 2, 2015.
According to him, the NPP had dominated for far too long in the region and that the trend must be reversed.
“It is just a like a football match where you have constantly been beaten by your opponent. You go back to the drawing board to correct your mistakes, so we are working assiduously to ensure that we improve on our performances in difficult constituencies.”
“We, therefore, believe that with concerted efforts and sense of unity we can make it to the promised land,” he told the Daily Graphic in an interview.
Mr Annor-Dompreh said the NDC had identified its weaknesses in the Eastern Region, and just like the Ashanti Region which has also declared “operation one million votes, we think we are on course.”
Previous election
The NDC in 1996 won in the Eastern Region with 459,092 votes, representing 55.23 per cent, while the NPP had 362,405, which was 43.60 per cent.
In the 2004 elections, the NDC came out strongly with 353,032 votes as against 554, 627, which represented 38.38 per cent and 60.30 per cent respectively, but this was not enough to break the dominance of the NPP.
Come 2008, the NDC improved on its performance to 41.10 per cent, while NPP continued to lead with 57.14 per cent. The NDC polled 353,522 as against the NPP’s 491,520.
Then finally in 2012 the NDC polled 483,998, representing 42.03 per cent, and the NPP 655,462 representing 56.91 per cent.
Mr Annor-Dompreh said with this trend, there was hope for the NDC.
