The eastern regional minister has acknowledged that he has requested 200 students from each senior high school in his constituency to join his campaign launch on Saturday however, he has defended his position that it is not ‘by force’ or mandatory.According to Mr. Victor Smith, his letter to the schools was only a request to the schools after some of the students expressed their willingness to join the campaign launch because they are registered voters.He explained that since some of the senior high school students have attained voting age, the request was to provide them with the opportunity to take part in the political activity and not to force them to join the NDC.Mr. Smith said on Adom Fm that he is only spreading the good news of the ‘Better Ghana Agenda’ to the people after they had been disappointed and abandoned by the NPP for many years despite voting continuously for them.However the NPP regional organizer Annor Dompreh is unhappy that the eastern regional minister is abusing the powers of his office as well as intimidating the heads of schools to force them to release the students.Mr. Dompreh warned the regional minister against drawing the students into partisan politics instead of allowing them to focus on their education.He said even if the regional minister forces all students in the region to his campaign launch, he would lose the seat in the general elections.Meanwhile Mr. Victor Smith is optimistic of his win adding that the electorates have already accepted him assuring them that he would not disappoint them but deliver on his promises.