OSAFO-MAAFO PREDICTS ONETOUCH VICTORY (Page 13)

Story: George Folley Quaye, Wa

A PRESIDENTIAL aspirant of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Mr Yaw Osafo-Maafo, has predicted an outright victory in his favour at the party's national delegates congress scheduled for December 22, 2007.
"I expect to win in the first round because records in the NPP show that there is nothing like second round, it is either Osafo-Maafo or Mr X and therefore expect a ‘onetouch’ victory," he added.
Speaking to the media in Wa after a tour of the Upper West Region, he recalled that in 1992, 1996 and 1998 all the candidates who won the party's primaries were elected in the first round.
Mr Osafo-Maafo said people in the NPP normally knew whom to vote for and at those congresses the first two candidates took about 85 per cent of the votes with the rest of the candidates following with marginal votes.
He described the recent opinion polls on other NPP presidential aspirants as unreliable as delegates to the December congress had currently not been selected and that the real opinion polls would be in December 22, 2007.
He announced that in an unlikely event of defeat at the congress, he would not create any problem for the party and would therefore support the winner.
Mr Osafo-Maafo, however, cautioned that the election must be free and fair so as not to create any discontent.
On his vision for the country, the NPP presidential aspirant said Ghana would be made the Mecca of English-speaking West Africa.
"I will also promote the production of salt for export to enable us to earn more foreign exchange," he stated.
He expressed regret that the three northern regions were a difficult terrain for the NPP, which did not make the party comfortable, and expressed the hope that he would support any effort aimed at determining the executives in the orphaned constituencies to change the trend.
Touching on the state of roads in the northern parts of the country, Mr Osafo-Maafo gave the assurance that under his presidency they would be given the necessary attention.