President Akufo-Addo has congratulated the newly elected Member of Parliament for Kumawu constituency, Ernest Yaw Anim, on his emphatic victory in the by-election held.
According to him, the win is for the general good of the New Patriotic Party and the people of Kumawu as well. He further congratulated the people of Kumawu on conducting a peaceful, credible and transparent by-election, on 23rd May 2023, to elect their new Member of Parliament.
President Akufo-Addo explained that the by-election has given another big boost to Ghanaian democracy.
Furthermore, the President extended his congratulations to the NPP, NDC and the two independent candidates for their contribution to the positive outcome and also, the Jean Mensa-led Electoral Commission for maintaining its tradition of organizing the best elections in the 4th Republic.
“Finally, I congratulate Ernest Yaw Anim, the NPP parliamentary candidate, for his 71% emphatic victory in the by-election. He, and the national, regional, constituency and polling station executives and party workers of the NPP are to be strongly commended for their outstanding work, which has brought about this excellent result, recording one of the highest turnouts in a by-election in the history of the 4th Republic.”
President Akufo-Addo
In light of the outcome of the elections, President Akufo-Addo stated that he is confident that Ernest Ayim will make an effective representative of the people of Kumawu in Parliament.
“The elephant continues to be on the march. God bless Ernest Yaw Anim, the people of Kumawu and Ghanaian democracy, and may God bless us all, and our homeland Ghana, and make her great and strong.”
President Akufo-Addo
NDC accuses NPP of destroying morals of society
Meanwhile, the Deputy General Secretary of the National Democratic Congress, Mustapha Gbande, has accused the ruling New Patriotic Party of leading the country down a path of moral destruction.
According to him, the alleged incidents of vote-buying that characterized the Kumawu elections are a dent on the country’s political and democratic development. He stated that the NPP government had sanctioned a blatant vote-buying scheme to undermine the entire electoral process in favour of their candidate, Ernest Anim.
“The NPP is leading a path that destroys the morals of our society. The NPP government in this bye-election engaged in what we simply call vote-buying, physical cash in exchange of votes. That is so sad for our democracy. You’ll see regional chairmen, you’ll see NPP leadership, you’ll see appointees, CEOs virtually doling out money for people to vote.”
Mustapha Gbande
Mr. Gbande explained that despite the vote-buying and inducements, the NPP had only succeeded at increasing their total votes in the constituency by a small margin, in comparison to the NDC which had done much better. He further attributed the small marginal increase of the NPP to voter apathy as a result of the ruling government’s failure to bring development to the Kumawu people.
It will be recalled that Ernest Yaw Anim, the New Patriotic Party’s parliamentary candidate for the Kumawu by-election emerged victorious in Tuesday’s polls in Kumawu constituency.
At the end of the by-election on May 23, 2023, Mr. Anim polled 15,264 votes to beat the National Democratic Congress (NDC) candidate, Kwesi Amankwah, and two Independent Candidates, both of whom are called Kweku Duah. The NDC’s Kwesi Amankwah garnered 3,723 votes while Kwaku Duah (1) had 2,478 votes with the other Kwaku Duah managing a paltry 62 votes.
The Electoral Commission organised the election following the passing of the Member of Parliament for Kumawu, Philip Basoah on Mach 28. The election was however fraught with accusations of vote buying and an already signed pink sheet at a polling centre, although the Electoral Commission described the document as fake.
A few hours before the declaration of official results, the Deputy General Secretary of the NDC, Mustapha Gbande, also accused the government of massive vote buying.
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