Authors: 1Francis Cornelius Ennin, 1Emmanuel Atuahene, 2Seth Borbye, 2Peter Kwasi Sarpong
1,2Agogo College of Education, 1Offinso College of Education,
2Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology
Email: franciscorneliusengine@yahoo.com | atuaemma@yahoo.com | abilele83@gmail.com | Kp.sarp@yahoo.co.uk
Abstract
Finance is regarded as the most essential resource for political parties (van Biezen, 2003). The campaign of the flag bearers for political parties leave campaign teams wondering how to travel to all the constituencies. Commitment to finance political parties in Ghana has remained rhetoric hence the need to minimize cost. This research work provides a solution to the problem of presidential aspirants having to tour all the twenty-three (23) constituency capitals in the Central Region of Ghana campaigning. Most of the cost incurred by presidential candidates as they visit all the constituency capitals in Central Region is as a result of transportation and minimizing the distances covered. This problem is formulated as a Travelling Salesman Problem (TSP). TSP involves in finding an optimal route for visiting cities and returning to the point of origin. In the development of the algorithm, real road lengths were used instead of the norm-1 distances which are widely accepted for the solution of the TSP using Simulated Annealing. The formulation of the TSP in this work is based on Symmetric TSP.
We present the solution based on Simulated Annealing (SA) method. A Mat lab code for the TSP algorithm was used to solve the problem of a presidential aspirant visiting all the twenty-three (23) constituency capitals in the Central Region of Ghana campaigning. The result obtained in the study showed that the optimal route that can be considered is Elmina Essarkyir Apam Winneba Potsin Awutu Breku Kasoa Agona Swedru Agona Nsaba Afransi Asikuma Ajumako Saltpond Assin Foso Dunkwa-onOffin Diaso Twifo Praso Jukwa Assin Breku Nsuaem Kyekyewere Abura Dunkwa Abura(Cape Coast) Old Hospital Hill(Cape Coast) Elmina with a total distance of 786km.
Keywords: Optimal Campaign Visitation, Simulated Annealing (SA) method, Financing, Political Parties
