The Upper East Regional Chairman of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), Alhaji Mumuni Bolnaba, has said the party is poised to achieving its agenda of winning all 15 parliamentary seats in the region in the 2024 election.

Dubbed: “Agenda 15/15, he said with the parliamentary primaries over in all the constituencies, all hands were on deck to recapture the Binduri seat in 2024 to achieve the party’s agenda.

“I am very convinced that the NDC will snatch the Binduri seat, the only seat held by the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and currently occupied by Abdulai Abanga who doubles as a Deputy Minister of Works and Housing” he told the Daily Graphic in an interview yesterday.

Seats

The NDC currently occupies 14 out of 15 parliamentary seats in the region while the ruling NPP has only the Binduri seat.

Although former President John Dramani Mahama won the presidential election in the constituency with 8,978 votes against President Akufo-Addo, the NDC lost the parliamentary election to the NPP by 454 votes.

In the 2020 parliamentary election, Abdulai Abanga of the NPP polled 15,016 votes representing 49 per cent, Robert Baba Kuganab-Lem of the NDC had 14,562 votes representing 47.6 per cent while Ayeeda John Ayebilla, an independent candidate secured 999 votes representing 3.1 per cent.

Binduri

Alhaji Bolnaba said the NDC lost the Binduri seat to the NPP due to activities of two factions within the party which were not well managed and negatively affected the fortunes of the party in the last parliamentary elections.

He asserted that ahead of the 2024 election, all the issues within the constituency had been addressed as there was currently no factions that had the tendency to thwart the efforts of the party towards winning all the parliamentary seats.

He said “luckily for us as a party, we have a new parliamentary candidate to contest in the constituency on the ticket of the NDC who is capable of winning the seat for the party”.

Reconciliation

Touching on measures to protect the 14 seats already held by the party, he said the regional executives accompanied by some party elders and party bigwigs would, at the end of July, begin a reconciliation tour in all constituencies to unite the party members.

He stressed that “after the successful primaries, it had become necessary for the party leadership to meet all parliamentary candidates as well as incumbent MPs who lost and their supporters to bring everybody together for the betterment of the party”.

He said it was important for every party member to be brought on board ahead of the next general election to brighten the party’s chances of winning the general election to form the next government in 2025.

“I wish to call on all MPs, including party supporters and sympathisers, to put the primaries behind them and play their respective roles to ensure a resounding victory for the party in 2024.” he indicated.

He further cautioned persons, including MPs who lost in the primaries, to desist from working against the party as it would be in their own interest to work for the party to recapture political power, saying “when we recapture power, there will be better opportunities for all party faithful”.

SOURCE: GraphicOnline