Richard Ahiagbah, the New Patriotic Party’s (NPP) Director of Communications, has alleged that the National Democratic Congress’ (NDC) victory in the Assin North by-election was largely the result of sympathy rather than the Assin North’s residents’ difficult decision to support the NDC.
According to Mr. Ahiagbah, the NDC went to the Assin North Constituency with a message that gave the locals a negative impression of the NPP-led-administration. He claimed that the NDC intentionally sought for sympathetic votes with the message that the NPP, not the law, was behind Gyakye Quayson’s persecution.
“That is a false representation of the facts of the matter and that false narrative created a situation which incited the people against the government.”
Richard Ahiagbah
The NPP’s Director of Communications also contended that the Supreme Court’s order for Parliament to delete Mr. Quayson’s name from its records was the result of his own false assertions, rather than any action taken by the NPP to remove him from Parliament.
In order to win the election, he claimed that the NDC was “riding on a lot of falsehoods” and that the it did this by appealing to voters’ emotions.
Moreover, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo asserted his confidence that Assin North will turn blue again as soon as possible. He has therefore advised NPP members to maintain their composure, acknowledging that there are winners and losers in a democracy.
Again, the NPP claims that the Assin North by-election is a wake-up call that necessitates the party to analyze its strategy and make reasonable retrospective judgments. It further exhorted party members to forward their suggestions and opinions to the National Secretariat for review and potential implementation.
After the by-election on Tuesday, June 27, 2023, James Gyakye Quayson of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) received 17,245 votes, or 57.56%, Charles Opoku of the NPP received 12,630 votes, or 42.15%, and Sefenu Bernice Enyonam, a candidate for the Liberal Party of Ghana (LPG) received only 87 votes, or 0.29% of the total cast.
Vote-Buying Led To NPPs Loss
Mussa K. Dankwah, Executive Director of Global Info Analytics, listed the main reasons why the New Patriotic Party (NPP) lost the Assin North by-election.
Prior to the election, the pollster revealed that Charles Opoku of the New Patriotic Party was slightly ahead in their most recent survey. However, Mussa Dankwah after the election claimed that among other things, the NPP’s failure was caused by the extreme opulence displayed by some of its members.
In addition, he emphasized the reasons Charles Opoku lost the election and clarified that the bulk of his demographic did not vote, particularly in NPP strongholds.
“It was a combination of many factors: the perception that they are persecuting James Gyakye Quayson, the fact that they left development projects in Kumawu [uncompleted], and they hurriedly came to Assin North and another factor was the sheer opulence and sprinkling of money in the constituency. It made some people very angry.
“James Gyakye won the people who were undecided; most of them, and Charles Opoku lost grounds to Quayson on the basis that his demography didn’t come out to vote. Especially strongholds of NPP such as Kushea and Breku, where they were hoping to win, but they didn’t. These are the reasons James Gyakye Quayson outperformed.”
Mussa Dankwah
READ ALSO: NPP Interprets Assin North By-Election As Wake Up Call
