Can NDC retain Agona West parliamentary seat?
The Agona West Constituency seat can be described as one of the swing constituencies in the Central Region, having been won by the two leading political parties, the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the New Patriotic Party (NPP).
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Since the commencement of the Fourth Republic in 1992, both the NPP and the NDC have held the seat. The NDC occupied it in 1992 and 1996 and lost it to the NPP in 2000, 2004 and 2008. However, the NDC recaptured the seat in the 2012 election.
Per the parliamentary results of the constituency, the upcoming elections would determine which of the two parties would have control over the other in terms of supremacy in the constituency with regard to the number of years each had held the seat.
There are all indications that the NDC and the NPP are leaving no stone unturned in their quest to either retain or capture the seat. While the NDC is working hard to hold onto the seat, the NPP hopes to take it back.
The first parliamentarian to occupy the seat was the late John Oscar Bimpong who was elected as MP for the area on the ticket of the NDC when the NPP boycotted the 1992 parliamentary election.
Parliamentary elections in the constituency have always been a fierce battle between the NDC and the NPP since 1996. The 1996 parliamentary election was a straight contest between Mr Samuel Oppong of the NDC and Mr Paul Kofi Tawiah of the NPP. Mr Oppong polled 19,473 representing 39.30 per cent to win the seat, while Mr Kofi Tawiah secured 14,831 votes representing 29.90 per cent.
The results cemented the NDC’s dominance in the constituency though the party contested the election with a new candidate.
The rest of the votes were shared by John F. Edwin Jnr (CPP), 3,362, representing 6.80 per cent, Mr Isaac Ebo Bartels of the National Convention Party (NCP) had 2,091 votes, representing 4.20 per cent with Baba Rockson getting 552 of the valid votes cast, representing 1.10 per cent.
The 2000 parliamentary election started the NPP dominance in the constituency. It saw the NPP wrest power from the NDC which had held on to the seat for eight years. The NPP’s new candidate, Mr Samuel Kweku Obodai, won the seat for the party after securing 21,443 votes representing 57.5 per cent to beat the incumbent MP, Mr Samuel Oppong, who had 13,784 votes representing 39.9 per cent. The win by the NPP marked the beginning of their 12-year grip of the seat.
Mr Kojo Anan of the National Reform Party had 988 votes, representing 2.6 per cent; Mr Mathew Caurie, who contested on the ticket of the Convention People’s Party (CPP), polled 679 votes, representing 1.8 per cent, while Abu Hamid Wanzam of the People’s National Convention (PNC) secured 430 votes, representing 1.2 per cent.
Again, in the 2004 election, Mr Samuel Obodai held on to the seat with 24,939 votes, representing 52.2 per cent, Mr Samuel Oppong of the NDC had 19,531 votes, representing 40.9 per cent. However, Mr Paul Kofi Tawiah, who contested the 1996 election on the ticket of the NPP, contested the election as an independent candidate and managed to secure 2,679 of the total votes cast, representing 5.6 per cent.
Joseph Kwabinah Otsibu Amoah of the CPP had 391 votes, representing 0.8 per cent, while Mr Joseph Archibald Ankrah managed only 260 votes representing 0.5 per cent.
In the 2008 election, the NPP maintained its dominance in the constituency after Mr Samuel Obodai secured 18,951 votes representing 42 per cent. Though the NPP won the seat, the votes secured by the candidate showed a reduction in the votes of the party as compared to the 2004 election.
The NDC contested the election with a new candidate, Mr Ibrahim Zubairu, who had 12,613 votes representing 27.9 per cent. Mr Samuel Oppong, who did not contest the NDC primary in the run-up to the 2008 election later came back to contest the main election as an independent candidate and polled 12,526 representing 27.7 per cent.
Per the results, it was obvious that if Mr Oppong, the current Municipal Chief Executive for Agona West, had not contested the election as an independent candidate to split the NDC votes, Mr Zubairu would have been elected as the MP for the area to end the NPP dominance in the constituency. The disunity in the NDC, indeed, caused the party the seat in the 2008 election.
Mr James Ato Wilson of the Democratic Freedom Party (DFP) had 170 votes, representing 0.4 per cent; Mr Kojo Anan polled 720 of the votes, representing 1.6 per cent, while Madam Susanna Keelson-Aikins of the Democratic People’s Party (DPP) secured 170 votes, representing 0.4 per cent.
End of NPP dominance
The NDC brought the NPP dominance in the constituency to an end when the current MP for Agona West, Lawyer Charles Obeng-Inkoom, through effective grass-roots campaigning, managed to wrest the seat from the NPP after polling 30,166 votes, representing 53.20 per cent of total votes cast.
His victory was largely attributed to the ‘skirt and blouse’ voting pattern, since President John Mahama lost to Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo in the presidential election by just 641 votes, while Mr Obeng-Inkoom won the seat with 4,769 votes margin.
The results pointed to the fact that even die-hard NPP supporters voted for Mr Obeng-Inkoom, though he stood on the ticket of the NDC and voted for Nana Akufo-Addo as presidential candidate. The electorate had had enough of the MP then and, therefore, chose him (Obeng-Inkoom) over Samuel Obodai.
The then incumbent MP, Mr Kweku Obodai, had 25,397 votes, representing 44.79 per cent; Mr Stephen Ato Wilson of the Progressive People’s Party (PPP) secured 704 votes, representing 1.24 per cent; George Ampiah-Biney, who contested on the ticket of the Convention People’s Party (CPP), had 342 votes, representing 0.60 per cent, while Mr Alfred Kwame Amponsah of the National Democratic Party (NDP) managed only 93 votes, representing 0.16 per cent.
Build-up to 2016
In the build-up to the 2016 election, the parliamentary election in the constituency is definitely a close battle between the incumbent, Mr Obeng-Inkoom of the NDC, and a first timer, Mrs Cynthia Morrison of the NPP.
She definitely has a herculean task of erasing the memories of the former NPP MP for the area, Mr Kweku Obodai, who some electorate described as failing to address most of the needs of the communities, in order to be able to recapture the seat for the NPP member.
Some voters at Agona Swedru in particular in the run-up to the 2012 election were unhappy due to the fact that the MP, who was at one time the Deputy Central Regional Minister, could not ensure the completion of access roads at Mahodwe and Mangoase that had been abandoned.
So far, Mr George William Dickson, a social worker/musician, has surfaced to contest the seat as an independent candidate with few of his posters dotted in parts of the constituency.
