Outgoing Member of Parliament for Ledzokuku constituency, Dr Bernard Okoe Boye has said his loss in the December 7 general elections didn’t come to him as a surprise.
According to him, he knew it will be very difficult to retain a seat that is traditionally the stronghold of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC).
“The people of Ledzokuku have a default inclination to NDC and it will take years of hard work to change their minds” he said in an interview on Asempa FM’s Ekosii Sen programme Thursday.
Dr Okoe Boye who is also the Deputy Minister for Health lost to NDC’s Benjamin Ayiku Narteh.
He polled 54,072 votes as against the NDC candidate’s 55,938 of the total votes cast.
Many have attributed his loss to him preventing the people from celebrating the Homowo festival due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Reacting to the loss, however, Dr Okoe Boye agreed that the propaganda indeed worked against the NPP in spite of the many developmental projects he had done for the constituency.
Though he could not secure a second term in Parliament, the former MP said he was happy that President Akufo-Addo performed better in the constituency.
“I am happy we succeeded in getting significant votes for the President. I reduced the gap to 8000 between Mahama and Nana Akufo-Addo,” he stated.
He added that even though there are multi-faceted issues that led to his defeat, a “change of attitude and orientation of the people who vote by ‘default’ can help the NPP to win the seat back”.
He underscored the need for the Ga caucus in the NPP to work on the mindset of the people along the coast to rather look at issues before they vote.
He conceded that there are also some internal issues that caused his defeat, saying, however, that such issues will be dealt with in-house.
Listen to Hon Okoe Boye in the audio below for more: