By Francis Kwabena Cofie
Accra, Nov. 30, GNA – The National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE) of the La Nkwantanang Madina Municipality has organized Inter-Party Parliamentary Candidates Dialogue for interaction between the constituents and aspiring parliamentarians in the area.
This was to afford the parliamentary candidates (PCs) the opportunity to sell their policies to the electorate for them to make informed decisions of whom to vote for in the coming December 7 elections.
It was attended by Mr Francis Xavier Sosu, the incumbent Member of Parliament for the area, and Mr Mohammed Awal, Independent parliamentary candidate. Mr Robert Lamptey, the New Patriotic Party (NPP) parliamentary candidate failed to participate.
The participants answered questions ranging from education, infrastructure, health, unemployment, among others.
Taking his turn to respond to questions, Mr Sosu said leadership was not about promises but how much one had delivered and that speaks to the volume of work done in the years gone by.
On education, he said, the NDC embarked upon the progressively free form of the free SHS policy while the NPP rolled out its full implementation, which was fraught with challenges such as feeding, infrastructure, funding, among others.
“Mr. John Mahama upon assumption of office would dedicate special funding for the Free SHS policy to cater for personnel and infrastructure components,” he stated
Mr Sosu said the Best Teacher Awards Scheme which he instituted in the constituency had been run on two occasions and continued to motivate teachers in the municipality.
He said the Madina Job Centre has impacted the lives of about 7000 people since it was established, adding, “with Mr Mahama winning the presidency, he would partner with him to ensure that the development challenges of the Madina constituency was addressed.”
The incumbent parliamentarian said his office was committed to the cause of peace in the impending elections and that he would ensure that the sanctity of the ballot was protected.
Mr Awal on his part said if voted into office, he would ensure that the Common Fund was used as a revolving fund to serve the interest of the community.
On health, he said he would ensure that a chunk of the fund was devoted to the health needs of the people.
Touching on education, he said the Free SHS policy was a laudable one but needed to be reviewed to address the litany of challenges bedeviling it.
Madam Doris Agyeman, the Municipal NCCE Director described the forum as most relevant to allow constituents to assess their preferred candidates and to make informed decisions.
She said one of the objectives of the platform was to solicit from the parliamentary aspirants their commitment to non-violence and issue-based campaign while ensuring tolerance, and peace before, during, and after the election.
Madam Agyeman rated the success of the event to 50 per cent, adding that the core objective has been achieved in view that two out of the three PCs managed to show up despite the heavy demands of the political season.
The NCCE, she said, recognized the critical role of citizens in the democratic process hence the institution of the PCD platform for interaction at the constituency level.
GNA