Chapter 5 important for the development prospects of other areas even within the same district. Similarly, the general pattern of voting of districts, communities and even regions is politically important. It indicates areas of safe zones or strongholds as well as difficult or unfavourable areas as far as political parties are concerned. These elements provide leverage for the communities as parties explore entry points into communities as part of their mobilization strategy. Within the above context, isolated disputes over chieftaincy succession, land ownership and location of new district capitals have historically developed into violence and have served as entry points through which national politics is invited into local disputes. For example, faced with an opportunity to have their candidates installed as the Ya-Na of Dagbon in the Northern Region in 1954, the Andani leadership including their Member of Parliament crossed over to the then ruling party, the Convention People's Party(CPP) and since then, while the Andani gate has been associated with the populist tradition(CPP and now NDC), the Abudu gate has been associated with the right wing Danquah­Busia-Dombo tradition which is now represented by the NPP (Osei-Tutu and Danso, 2012; Mahama, 2003). In the above forms, a rise in tensions is associated with which group is feeling disadvantaged by the conduct of the sitting political regime and which group has its preferred regime in office. In March 2002, the sitting Ya-Na Yakubu Andani and 40 of his elders were killed on the eve of the celebration of the Bugum (Fire) festival in Yendi. In the NPP government, which had assumed office in January 2001, some key positions(including security) were occupied, coincidentally, by members of the Abudu 166