Electorates in the Asawase Constituency were left dissatisfied when candidates from the two dominant political parties the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the New Patriotic Party (NPP) all failed to show up at the parliamentary campaign platform mounting dialogue held by the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE).
While the civic engagement was to serve as an effective tool to allow the parliamentary candidates to sell their message to the electorates and to receive thoughts and feedback, neither the incumbent Member of Parliament Alhaji Muntaka Mohamed Mubarak nor the NPP’s candidate Manaf Ibrahim honored the call.
Asokore Mampong Municipal NCCE Director Matthew Agbenu told Ultimate News the offices of both political parties had been officially contacted with a series of reminders duly communicated.
Expressing his disappointment, Mr. Matthew Agbenu lamented that his outfit had received all the assurances and had communicated the same to the NCCE national office which had deployed the National Programs director of the NCCE to grace the engagement.
He indicated that the two candidates only communicated at a late hour that they both had to attend funerals leaving the NCCE with no choice than to proceed with an independent candidate and a parliamentary candidate for the Liberal Party of Ghana (LPG).
“We planned this to bring the candidates and their electorates together to fraternize and for the candidates to share their vision for contesting. From day one, I went with my regional director to engage them at their executive offices and explain our motives and they agreed.”
“I followed up with letters and called to ensure they had received them. They said they had received the letters and they would come. Even on the exact day, I called them twice but they didn’t turn up.
“To my surprise, all the NPP candidate told me is that he has a funeral. The NDC candidate also sent a rep here to tell us he was also attending a funeral,” he recounted.
Matthew Agbenu cautioned that if candidates continued to find excuses to completely disregard such programs; the import of dialogue and education rolled out by the NCCE would be of no effect.
“I am disappointed because those are the two major political parties whose presence is needed to make the function lively and educative. They have brought down the essence and the ideals of dialogue,” he bemoaned.
Meanwhile Parliamentary candidate of the Liberal Party of Ghana and the only woman in the race Naomi Nsor together with the independent candidate Rafik Alhassan had the crowd to themselves to disseminate their campaign messages.
Naomi Nsor assured the constituents an ultramodern abattoir and three astroturf pitches to create direct jobs and to harness the talents of young sports icons in the constituency.
Rafik Alhassan promised to use a decentralized system that fosters a better working relationship between thee MP’s office, the Municipal Chief Executive and the assembly members to address challenges of the constituency.
He contended that he was poised to retire the incumbent Alhaji Muntaka Mohammed Mubarak who is seeking a sixth term in parliament.
Source: Ghana/Starrfm.com.gh/103.5FM/Emmanuel Anyan
