A LEADING member of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Ms Ursula Owusu, has urged delegates of the forth coming parliamentary primary in Ablekuma South to select a marketable and winnable aspirant who can take the seat for the party.
She said the constituency needed a loyal, team player, committed and hardworking member who apart from winning the seat for the NPP would adequately represent the voice of the constituency.
Ms Owusu, who is also the Vice President of the Federation of International Women Lawyers (FIDA-Int), was speaking to the Daily Graphic about her intention to contest the primary of the Ablekuma South Constituency of the party.
The NPP opened nomination on February 28 and had fixed April 30, 2011 for the election of aspirants at the various constituencies.
Reports indicate that interested party members have started picking forms at the various constituencies, regional and the national office. The final day for submission of forms is March 18, 2011.
The party had attached to the nomination forms the rules and regulations governing the primaries, fees and steps in the electoral process. There shall be no other considerations beyond these rules and regulations without the express knowledge of the national executive.
Ms Owusu said apart from her passion to represent the voice of the voiceless and the underprivileged among others, one main thing that had motivated her to contest the seat was how the NPP miraculously lost the seat when results at the polling station proved that the NPP won the elections.
Describing Ablekuma South, which consist of Dansoman, Glefe, Chokor among other communities in the constituency as peri-urban and cosmopolitan, she said the constituency required an action-oriented and outspoken representative who would champion the cause of the people.
She said she was at the polling station when the ballots were counted, and it was the NPP that won both parliamentary and presidential, when the results were being collated at the coalition centre it was called for the National Democratic Congress (NDC).
Ms Owusu, who is a legal practitioner and a member of the 2004 National Campaign team, explained that the NDC was able to implement their grand design to rig the election because they used all kinds of unlawful means including physically preventing NPP accredited agents to be at the collation centres and in the process changed the figures to favour the NDC.
She explained that it was for these and other intimidatory postures of the NDC, which had gone on unchecked, that made the NPP flag bearer, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to encourage the party members to defend the ballot to ensure that the will of the people prevailed and not the might of the NDC.
She expressed worry at the apparent neglect of the constituency, especially roads, erratic supply of electricity and water which had brought untold hardship to the people in the constituency.
Ms Owusu added that although the cardinal work of the Member of Parliament (MP) was not primarily to undertake infrastructure projects, however it was the MP’s responsibility to bring pressure to bear, and the use of other connections, including being vocal on the floor of the house to seek for solutions to the problem.
She said there was no reason for the government to cut sod for the re-construction of the main Dansoman road over the last two years, when it was not ready to complete the projects, adding that those concerns demanded that the MP for the area tackled them with all seriousness.
She noted that because the contractor had removed the drains along the roads, anytime it rained, houses get flooded and when the weather was dry, the people were inundated with dust which could cause all sorts of respiratory diseases and wondered why the rush in cutting sod for the construction of the road when they were not ready to carry through with the project.
Ms Owusu promised that as an MP for the area, she would keep in touch with the people she would represent in Parliament, get to know their concerns and ensure that the appropriate authorities addressed their concerns and also seek other external sources to support the development of the area.
Commenting on national issues, Ms Owusu promised to continue her crusade through advocacy and other legitimate means to speak out against human right abuses, especially gender inequalities and also suggest better ways of finding solutions to such age old problem.
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