Daughters step in fathers’ political shoes
There will be at least 100 new members among the 275 members who have been elected to represent their constituencies at the eighth Parliament of the Fourth Republic.
Out of the 126 women who contested the Parliamentary elections, 39 were successful, a slight improvement on the 38 women who won and represented their constituencies in 2016.
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Of the 40 heading for Parliament on January 7, there are still a unique group of four women who will be attracting more interest because they have dared to not only chart a political career for themselves, but taking up after particularly their fathers who were very successful in their political careers.
More interestingly, these four may have been relatively young during their fathers’ active political activities.
In a political terrain that there is no special dispensation for women who decide to contest, it is remarkable that these women have held their own in the challenge, ran their campaigns with the support of their team members and won in such convincing manner.
Meet them:
Zanetor Agyeman Rawlings
The first daughter of the late former President Flt. Lt. Jerry John Rawlings is heading to Parliament for her second term.
Mourning the death of her father at a time when she was to have stepped up her campaign, Ms Agyeman Rawlings polled 39,193 votes to retain the seat she first won during the 2016 elections. Despite her relative young career in this field, she received an overwhelming endorsement, garnering 8,000 votes more than the main contender, the New Patriotic Party’s (NPP) Prince Appiah Debrah who had 31,239 votes.
Her victory in this election comes as no surprise for most political pundits given how she announced her arrival on the political scene five years ago.
In 2015, she stunned the experienced Nii Armah Ashitey, the then incumbent, at the National Democratic Congress (NDC) primaries before winning the elections with 33,609 votes against Philip Addison of the NPP who polled 29,122 votes.
After being declared winner of the election, Ms Agyeman Rawlings, a medical doctor by profession, expressed gratitude to the constituents for the confidence they had in her by retaining her; and dedicated the victory to the memory of her late father, who she described as her mentor, inspirer and who believed in her ability to serve her people.
Posting a photo of her and her late father, she shared a rare father-daughter moment. She posted: “For you, dad,” moments after being declared winner of the elections.
Mrs Elizabeth Ofosu Agyare
Not much was known or heard about her in the political circles until in 2013 when she was appointed the Minister for Tourism, Culture and Creative Arts under John Dramani Mahama’s administration.
She is the daughter of the late Isaac Kwadwo Adjei-Mensah, who also won the Parliamentary seat for Techiman North between 1996 and 2003.
A stalwart of the NDC, the late Adjei-Mensah at various times, held ministerial portfolios during Rawlings’s administration.
A lawyer by profession, Mrs Ofosu Adjare returned to legal practice after the NDC lost the 2016 elections but played an active role and filed to contest the Techiman North seat during the 2020 general election.
Having gone unopposed during the primaries in the constituency, Mrs Ofosu Agyare mounted a strong campaign, also tagged ‘rescue mission’ and succeeded in defeating the incumbent, Martin Oti Gyarko of the NPP in a keen contest. She polled 23,252 representing 52.54 per cent against Mr Oti Gyarko’s 21,008 or 47.46 per cent of the votes cast.
Prior to her election, Mrs Ofosu Agyare said the decision to carve a career in politics was not out of a desire to continue with her father’s legacy, but rather, to be a voice for the vulnerable and the minority.
She, however, said she owed the interest in politics to her father, who though did not insist on any of his children following his steps, nonetheless, helped them to be politically aware and to have a voice instead of sitting on the fence, even at home as a family, where the foundation of politics was laid.
Dakoa Newman
Even when she was young, Dakoa Newman keenly followed the exploits of her father, a founder member of the NPP, Mr Victor Newman.
Impressed by the hard work of particularly her father to the development and progress of the party, she decided at a young age that she wanted to play a role in party politics.
She thus registered to become a member of the party in the Okaikoi South Constituency and eventually became a polling station women’s organiser.
With the blessing of her father, in 2019, she decided to contest for the Parliamentary seat and challenged and beat the incumbent Ahmed Arthur, winning by 440 to 327 votes, a victory that sent her close to realising her dream as the constituency was one of the safe seats for the NPP.
On December 7, the project management consultant completed the process by winning convincingly the constituency parliamentary seat with 40,393 votes, against the NDC’s Abraham Kotei Neequaye who polled 26,019 votes.
Before her victory, the 34-year-old talked of her desire to fulfil a mission at the Legislature as:"If you look at the Ghanaian political landscape, the voices of women are few in the corridors of power and this has to change.
Sheila Bartels Sam
With 64.26 per cent of the votes cast, representing 54,821 votes she garnered, Sheila Bartels goes to Parliament as second generation of the Bartels nuclear family to represent the Ablekuma North Constituency
She beat the NDC’s Winifred Ashley Mensah who polled 29,772 (34.90 per cent)
Despite the huge influence of her father in both the party and in the constituency, Mrs Bartels Sam, an entrepreneur, did not win on a silver platter, but used her great organisational skills to her advantage.
Perhaps, keeping her long-cherished dream of representing the constituency to herself, she set out to mobilise the youth for her party, forming the HOPE Campaign ahead of the 2016 elections which was instrumental in ensuring that the electorate could connect with the NPP campaign message and this in no doubt contributed to the victory of the party in 2016.
It thus came as no surprise when she beat the incumbent MP, Nana Akua Owusu Afriyieh, with a 518-315 result in the primaries last June.
Trying to walk in the shoes of her father, Kwamena Essilfie Bartels, who served a three-term MP for the Constituency (from 1996 to 2008) and a key figure in the Kufuor Administration, is a herculean task, but Mrs Bartels Sam insists that will not be her focus as she heads for Parliament.
Mrs Elizabeth Ofosu Agyare- Techiman North & Sheila Bartels - Ablekuma North
