Leaders of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) and the National Democratic Congress (NDC) in the Eastern Region have braced themselves for the run-off in the presidential elections that puts the NPP’s Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo against NDC’s Professor John Evans Atta Mills. Mr Julius Debrah, NDC Regional Chairman and his counterpart in the NPP, Mr Yaw Amoabeng-Gyekye, both expressed their readiness to start intense canvassing for votes in what is generally expected to be a tough duel for the presidential crown. Speaking to the GNA, Mr Julius Debrah confirmed the opposition party’s readiness to engage in a democratic ‘slugfest’ with their opponent for the presidency, saying the Eastern regional secretariat of the party will do everything legitimately possible to pull a victory. Mr Debrah will not go into specifics, but nonetheless explained that the NDC’s overall strategy would focus on rolling out for the masses the philosophy of social democracy as against what he said is the NPP’s exploitative capitalist-oriented creed. In that regard, he said the party would engage in massive marketing of the essence of the social democracy as a better political ideology and how the citizenry could have their varied expectations met under a probable NDC administration. In a separate interview, Mr Amoabeng-Gyekye encouraged supporters of the NPP, especially those who took it for granted that the party will win in the first round to turn-out in their numbers on December 28 to give Nana Akufo-Addo a resounding victory. He said the secretariat would do all it could to assist its candidate prevail in the next round through an effective engagement with the electorate about its message. Mr Amoabeng-Gyekye asked supporters of the NPP to be calm and not engage in any activity that might mar the peace. A cross-section of the electorate that the GNA interviewed in Koforidua expressed divergent views as to the likely outcome of the run-off, albeit, they all expressed respect for the professional manner the Electoral Commission (EC) had delivered on its constitutional mandate so far. Both Mr Martin Defor and Anthony Ayivi were optimistic that the NDC will win the second round, alleging that their party failed to clinch a first-round victory despite leading in the parliamentary race because of attempts by some other parties to rig the elections. That view was contested by Mr Ernest Addo, who claimed that internal squabbling was to blame for NPP’s woes rather than any scheme to rig the elections. Mr Addo urged the leadership of the NPP to heal rifts that might have been responsible for its failure to win ‘one-touch’, a view which was supported by Mr B. Wasa Alhassan and Mr Godson Anaman both NPP supporters. While Mr Anaman wants the ruling party to emulate the NDC’s house-to-house campaign style, Mr Alhassan on the other hand wants an intensification of the NPP’s campaign to dislodge their opponent. Madam Margaret Tetteh, a trader at the Koforidua-Kumasi main bus terminal was happy with the orderly conduct of the elections, despite pre-election tension and commended all the political actors for their restraint that has made it possible for Ghana to remain an oasis of peace. Source: GNA