Parliamentary candidates have been advised to control their followers and educate them on issues of the elections as the days drew closer for us to have peaceful polls this year.

‘’As the days draw closer for the election and as you also intensify your campaigns as parliamentary candidates, advise your followers to be very careful with what they say and do as your supporters in order to have violent free election this year. You are very much aware that whoever wins in Fanteakwa North Constituency, we all belong to the same constituency?

The Fanteakwa North District Director of National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE), Cynthia Essel gave the advice in her welcome address at the Parliamentary Candidates Dialogue held at Begoro St. Paul Anglican Church on Thursday, November 21, 2024.

The NCCE Director said, as a Commission, one of its roles was to formulate for consideration of Ghana, programmes aimed at realising the objectives of the constitution of Ghana, hence the formation of Inter Party Dialogue Committee (IPDC) made up of members from political parties, party affiliates, security service, Civil Society Organisations, Faith-Based Groups, Identifiable Groups among others in all the constituencies in the country. 

Platform 

She said the programme was a platform for the candidates to articulate their vision, policies and engage with the constituents on issues of concern to the constituency as well as to the nation. She mentioned the issues of concern to the constituents and Ghanaians in general as education, employment, roads infrastructure, the economy and agriculture. She, therefore, emphasised the need for the candidates to ensure that they responded to the issues on the table for the dialogue.

Out of the two candidates from National Democratic Congress (NDC) and New Patriotic Party (NPP) invited for the programme, it was the NPP candidate, Kwame Kodua, who is also the incumbent Member of Parliament for Fanteakwa North who honoured the invitation. 

The Moderator of the programme, Very Reverend Daniel Osae Addo at the beginning of the programme set the tone by giving out the rules governing the programme and appealed to both the NPP candidate present and the participants to cooperate in both asking and answering of questions in order to clear the doubts on the minds of all participants.

The programme which was made up of four sessions were all covered with both questions and answers by the participants and the NPP candidates.

Answering a question on agriculture, Mr. Kodua stated that, the Fanteakwa North Constituency is one of the constituencies with large farm lands, and therefore when given the chance to represent them again he would advice the youth to go into farming after senior high school.

He said his party, the NPP would bring machines to help the farmers in order to farm more and produce more. More so, he would supply Agro chemicals to farmers to support them.

When he was asked why the President did not assent to the LGBT even though the parliament had passed the law, he said he was sure that it was because the case was in court, hence the President’s failure to assent to it and therefore he was sure that when the case before the court was cleared the President would assent to it.

On development projects in the district, he said he would ensure that he used his share of the MP’s Common Fund to work on projects in the constituency when given the nod as their MP again.

The NPP candidate who attempted and answered all the questions posed before him expressed his gratitude to all the participants and all constituency leaders as well as the leadership of the NCCE, the organisers of the programme and pledged for peace before, during and after the election.

Unity 

The Moderator of the programme, Very Rev. Osae-Addo thanked all the participants for the successful programme most, especially with the attendance and their patience in asking questions and answering of the questions. He also drummed home the need to maintain peace in the incoming election so as to remain united as a constituency and as a country after the elections.