Optimal Campaign Visitation of Presidential Aspirants case study: Central Region of Ghana.

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2013-06-14
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All over the world, political parties are seen as vital institutions for contemporary democratic dispensation and they play a vital role in the democratic process. Finance is regarded as the most essential resource for political parties (van Biezen, 2003). Yet for too long, commitment to financing of 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 in such trips goes a long way to minimize cost, since transportation costs depend on distances traveled. This problem is formulated as a Travelling Salesman Problem (TSP). TSP involves 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. This research work presents 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-on-Offin 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.
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A thesis submitted to the Department of Mathematics Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology Kumasi, Ghana in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Philosophy in Mathematics. 2013
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