With some few weeks to the December 7 general elections, the leadership of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) in Okere has intensified its house-to-house campaign to highlight the government’s achievements and to canvass for votes.
As part of the strategy, a team of the NPP will visit every household and shop in the seven major towns in Okere and the more than 120 farming communities along the downhill of Adukrom.
Okere District Chief Executive (DCE), Mr. Daniel Kenneth in an interview, said even though Okere was a stronghold of the NPP with a solid candidate Mr. Dan Botwe, the party was taking no chances.
“We are not taking the voters for granted, we want them to vote on the conviction that the NPP has delivered and has kept faith with the people of Okere,” he said. “We are working and campaigning like a party in opposition because we have a story to tell that the NPP government under the able leadership of President Akufo-Addo has delivered on his promises made to the people of Okere and so they must renew his mandate for another four years.”
The DCE said Okere had benefitted from the credible performance of the NPP in its first term, citing the creation of the Okere District, a request which was on the hearts of the people for over 20 years and the District Assembly complex building, as major transformations, that the people of Okere should be forever grateful to the NPP.
Mr. Kenneth said Okere had five major interlinking roads, which were all under construction. He mentioned the Asenema-Krutiase road, Adukrom-Apirede road, Asesseso-Abonsi-Agomeda road, Amanfrom-Tinkong and Asaman-Lakpa roads in addition to the reshaping of roads in all the seven major towns in the area.
He cited the employment of 130 youth under NABCO, 95 youth on the Okrakwadwo state farms and 359 in apprenticeship training as well as the construction of several school buildings and teachers quarters as benefits for the people in the area.
The NPP had consistently improved its votes in both the presidential and parliamentary elections since 2000 compared to the NDC whose candidates represented the people in Parliament since 1992.
In 1996, the NDC’s Mr Fuzy Torbay, won the Okere seat with 9,252 to beat the NPP’s Mr. Joe Mantey who managed to poll 1,450 votes. In 2000, the NPP’s candidate Mr. Brandford K. Adu snatched the seat from the NDC with a vote difference of nine, to beat the incumbent, Mr. Fuzzy Torbay.
Mr. Brandford Adu, who retained the seat in 2004, polled 10,902 votes as against 6,867 votes for the NDCs candidate Mrs. Gloria Adu Nartey.
In 2008, the NPP presented Mr. Dan Botwe, a former General Secretary of the NPP and former Minister of State, who polled 11,974 to beat Mr. George Opare-Addo, then Akuapem North District Chief Executive, who polled 6,728.
In 2012, Mr. Dan Botwe again defeated Mr. George Opare-Addo, polling 16,165 as against his contender’s 9,680 votes.
Mr. Dan Botwe, as the incumbent in 2016, widened the margin by polling 16,235 votes as against the NDC’s Mr. Michael Ofori Offei’s 6,410. Mr. Dan Botwe, incumbent MP and Minister for Regional Reorganization and Development is being challenged by Mr. Samuel Ayerakwa Kumodzi, on the ticket of the NDC.
In June 2020, Mr. Dan Botwe was widely endorsed by the 483 delegates to contest the Okere seat to lead them to a resounding victory on December 7, for the fourth consecutive time.
