According to the Ghana Police Service, sufficient police personnel have been deployed to Kumawu in the Ashanti Region ahead of the vital by-election in the constituency on Tuesday, May 23.
The Service stated in a statement that it had previously met with key players, including the New Patriotic Party leadership, the National Democratic Congress, and one independent candidate, to improve cooperation between all parties and ensure a peaceful election.
“As part of the security arrangement, the Police this morning engaged the parties contesting the election including the New Patriotic Party (NPP), the National Democratic Congress (NPP), and one of the Independent candidates to enhance collaboration among all stakeholders towards a peaceful election.
“The NPP team was led by its National Chairman and General Secretary, whiles the NDC team was led by its General Secretary and National Organiser. The Independent candidate represented himself at the meeting.”
ACP Grace Ansah-Akrofi, Director of Public Affairs, Ghana Police Service
The other independent candidate, however, was unable to attend the meeting, despite being invited.
“We wish to assure the people of the Kumawu Constituency to go about their normal activities freely, including going out to exercise their civic duty of casting their vote. We would like to urge the general public, especially the people of the Kumawu constituency to work with us to deliver a peaceful election and ensure the safety and security of all.”
ACP Grace Ansah-Akrofi, Director of Public Affairs, Ghana Police Service
Following the passing of the seated Member of Parliament, Philip Basoah, the Kumawu seat is now empty. Over the weekend, he was laid to rest.
The National Democratic Congress and the New Patriotic Party are both sincerely attempting to annex the seat in a by-election being organized by the Electoral Commission in the district to pick Mr. Basoah’s replacement.
The Kumawu seat has always been a safe one for the governing NPP, but the NDC is doing everything in its power to ensure that its candidate wins. There are four contenders for the position. They are Kwasi Amankwaa of the NDC, Ernest Yaw Anim of the NPP, and two independents with the names Kwaku Duah.
Other Than NPP, No Other Party Has A Chance Of Winning
By examining the candidates running in the by-elections critically, Mussa Dankwah, the Founder, Executive Director, and head of Global Research for the Global InfoAnalytics, offered an insight into how the Kumawu by-elections will turn out.
Mussa Dankwa provided more thorough insights of what is most likely to occur at Kumawu tomorrow in an interview today, May 22, 2023.
“If you look at how they have deployed their big gangs to the constituency, I wondered prior to that if they did a research and they just didn’t know what was going to happen because from what we’ve done, there’s no way that anybody will win the seat except their (NPP) candidate.”
Mussa Dankwa
He further stated that NPP is a reliable banker for a variety of reasons. Accordingly, the poll conducted in July revealed that only 19% of voters identified as NPP supporters and 74% claimed to be cloaking voters, which is unusual in a strong NPP constituency. He added that 74% of respondents barely indicated they would be unlikely to support the NPP in the event of a by-election in the constituency.
“The number of people who said are NPP is 72%, which should reflect what Kumawu will be. And the voting the NPP PC is around 56%. Certainly, something has changed and I believe a number of things have happened in the constituency. One is the candidature of Ernest Yaw Anim. He is different from the former MP and may have had issues with the former MP.
“No doubt about it. So, this new person probably came to neutralize that kind of conflict. There are effectively about 23% of voters saying that they’re voting for NPP because they are doing something there. That’s kind quite a huge number of voters, so they have been induced frankly upon the data that we have seen.”
Mussa Dankwa
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