National Communications Officer of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Sammy Gyamfi, has said that his party’s performance in the just-ended Kumawu bye-election is a sign of progress.
Mr Gyamfi noted that although the New Patriotic Party (NPP) allegedly indulged in vote buying, they added a mere 304 votes to their 2020 figure.
He asked the governing party to be concerned about the high voter apathy witnessed in Tuesday’s polls which may reoccur in the 2024 general election.Â
“Clearly, our friends in the NPP must be very worried about this alarmingly high voter apathy in Kumawu which can possibly reflect in the 2024 presidential polls.”
About 34,000 voters were expected to partake in the bye-election but there was a little over 20,000 voter turnout.
NPP’s Ernest Yaw Anim won with 15,264 votes, emerging victorious to beat NDC’s candidate and two independent candidates, both called Kwaku Duah.
NDC’s parliamentary candidate, Kwasi Amankwaa, polled 3,723 votes which represents 17.29%, a better result as compared to 2020’s 2,439 votes which is 8.3% of the total votes.
Shockingly the first independent candidate, Kwaku Duah got only 2,478 votes, a far lesser figure than 11,698 votes in the 2020 general election.
Below is his statement:
Folks, in the 2020 general elections, the NDC Parliamentary Candidate for the Kumawu Constituency got 2,439 votes representing 8.3% of valid votes, per the Electoral Commission’s certified results.
However, in the just-ended Kumawu by-election, the results declared by the EC show that the Parliamentary Candidate for the NDC got 3,723 votes representing 17.29%. What this means in nominal terms is that the NDC has increased its parliamentary votes by 1,284.
It is instructive to note, that in the 2020 general elections, the NPP’s Parliamentary candidate for the Kumawu Constituency had 14,960 votes representing 51.11% of valid votes, while the independent candidate from the NPP’s fold had 11,698 votes representing 39.96% of valid votes.
Interestingly, in the just-ended by-election, the NPP candidate had 15,264 votes while the independent candidate garnered only 2,478.
What this means in nominal terms is that, after all the unprecedented vote buying we witnessed in Kumawu, the NPP managed to increase their votes by a paltry 304, while about 8,000 voters who voted for the independent candidate from the NPP’s fold in 2020, decided not to vote in the by-election at all (assuming they are real human beings).
In short, the NDC increased its votes by 1,284 while the NPP increased their votes by only 304. The NPP also suffered very high voter apathy and/or voter turnout.
Clearly, our friends in the NPP must be very worried about this alarmingly high voter apathy in Kumawu which can possibly reflect in the 2024 presidential polls.
Given the fact that Kumawu is one of the hard-line traditional strongholds of the NPP in the Ashanti region and given the unprecedented vote buying the NPP and the Akufo-Addo/Bawumia government engaged in the run-up to this Kumawu by-election, the results from the Kumawu by-election is VICTORY for the great NDC. There is however more room for improvement for the NDC.
Aluta Continua, Victoria Acerta.
Sammy Gyamfi Esq.
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