Deputy Minister of Roads and Highways and Member of Parliament for Lawra constituency in the Upper West Region, Anthony Nyoh Abayifaa Karbo has allayed fears of him being a one term MP.

He said he won last year’s polls on merit and on the strength of his message.

Karbo, who polled 8,704 votes in the last election was refuting claims by some members of the opposition that he won the polls only because of the rift in the NDC.

The NDC candidate in the election Bede Ziedeng polled 7,476 with the incumbent MP at the time Samson Assibey polling 5651 votes.

The incumbent who lost the NDC primaries, went independent but could not retain the seat, allowing Anthony Karbo the opportunity to pick the seat with a little over a 1000 votes more than the NDC candidate.

But the NPP MP will not attribute his victory to the rift in the NDC at the Parliamentary level.

“A lot of people came to me and said you are going to be a one term MP. I told them we have heard, come and take it,” he smacked whilst speaking to some NPP supporters in Wa.

"We will not be so arrogant; we believe that people voted for us because they could see a certain burning desire. Our message was compelling; our strategy was a winning strategy. The NPP was ready for whatever. We were clear in our minds that we were not going to be in opposition beyond 8 years,’’ he stressed.

He said all the three candidates campaigned on their own accord and got votes and was therefore surprised to hear the NDC propounding theories and seeking to downplay his victory.

Referring to Bede Ziedeng, he said, "The Man wanted to win but the boys were faster,’’ he said.

The Deputy Minister for Roads and Highways said the task on hand is now to consolidate their gains.

‘‘Our target is 15, 000 votes in the next election and the NDC will know their real size. It is our target that once they could keep Nadowli-Kaleo Constituency for so many years (referring to the 25 year reign of deputy speaker of parliament, Alban Bagbin), we will also keep Lawra for so long,’’ he predicted.

‘‘We believe that in four years-time when we come and we go round and we talk, you will vote for us because of the projects, programmes, infrastructure, the development, the empowerment and the jobs that we have brought to you. You can then compare the work of the NPP and the NDC in the district,’’ he added.