Sunyani West: Can NPP maintain dominance?

With about 36 days to the general election on December 7, 2024, one of the constituencies to watch is the Sunyani West Constituency in the Bono Region.

It is a two-horse race between the incumbent New Patriotic Party (NPP) Member of Parliament (MP), Ignatius Baffour Awuah, who is also the Minister of Employment and Labour Relations and the National Democratic Congress (NDC) parliamentary candidate, Millicent Yeboah Amankwah.

The candidates, who contested in the 2020 general election, are lacing their boots to win the seat.

Strategies

The candidates and their supporters have adopted new campaign approaches for the battle ahead of them.

An aerial view of the University of Energy and Natural Resources 

Both parties have refrained from organising big rallies and showcasing their political activities on social media to prevent their opponents from countering their campaign messages.

Due to this campaign strategy adopted by the candidates, the constituency, with 73,969 registered voters, per the 2020 elections, is very quiet as if no one is participating in the December 7, 2024 general election.

However, the fear of voter apathy by supporters of the NPP is giving the NDC some hope of winning the seat.

Interestingly, the aspirants have resorted to using door-to-door campaigns to reach the electorate including those in the remote communities, thus lowering the political tempo in the constituency. 

Voting history

In 2020, Ms Amankwah contested Mr Baffuor-Awuah who won the seat by polling 26,907 representing 47.2 per cent, while Amankwah garnered 23,499 representing 41.2 per cent.

Ignatius Baffour Awuah — NPP Member of Parliament for Sunyani  West Constituency,  Millicent Yeboah Amankwah — NDC Parliamentary Candidate for Sunyani West Constituency

The constituency is a stronghold of the NPP, because since its creation in 1996, it has won all the presidential and parliamentary elections.

However, in some cases NDC candidates had performed exceedingly well to close the wide gap between the NPP and NDC candidates.

In 1996, the NPP candidate, Mr Kwadwo Adjei Darko, won the seat with 13,737 votes representing 39.50 per cent, while his close contender, Mr Kwadwo Nyamekye-Marfo of the

NDC, had 13,204 votes representing 37.90 per cent.

In the year 2000, Mr Darko of NPP retained the seat with 14,823 votes representing 53.20 per cent, while Mr Nyamekye-Marfo had 11,111 votes representing 39.80 per cent.

In 2004, Mr Darko won the seat for the third time running with 20,350 votes (53.30 per cent) while NDC's new candidate, Mr Ahmed Boadan, trailed with 12,386 (33.60 per cent).

In 2008, Mr Baffour-Awuah, who succeeded Mr Darko, retained the seat when he garnered 22,674 votes representing 60.52 per cent and NDC's Mr Nyamekye-Marfo had 14,233 votes representing 37.99 per cent of the total votes cast.

In 2012, even though NDC's Mr Nyamekye-Marfo came close to winning the seat with 22,153 votes which represented 49.05 per cent of the total votes cast, he could not beat NPP's formidable Baffuor-Awuah who amassed 22,620 votes (50 per cent).

In 2016, Mr Baffuor-Awuah increased his votes to 29,215 representing 61.79 per cent of the total votes cast in the constituency as against the 17,689 votes representing 37.41 per cent obtained by NDC's new candidate, Justice Samuel Adjei.

Visit

When the Daily Graphic visited the area recently, some residents bemoaned lack of development, while others expressed satisfaction about the level of development executed by the Municipal Assembly and the central government.

Sunyani Municipal Assembly block

A resident at Odumase, Samuel Asamoah, told the Daily Graphic that the level of development in the constituency was not up to satisfaction and called on political heads in the area to sit up.

He said the constituency was deprived of several development projects and called on the electorate to vote for change in the 2024 general election.

Mr Asamoah said the area was grappling with bad roads, poor management of refuse dumps, poor drainage system, inadequate streetlights and expansion of electricity to newly developed areas.

He said during the 2020 electioneering, the government promised to complete some roads in the area, but it was yet to fulfil that promise.

Mr Asamoah appealed to the government to rehabilitate roads and expand electricity to improve socio-economic activities in the constituency.

However, another resident at Fiapre, Richard Nsor, said over the years the government had embarked on several developmental projects to improve socio-economic lives of residents.

He mentioned the Fiapre Circuit Court, several mechanised boreholes, Ayakomaso Community-Based Health Planning Services (CHPS) compound, 10-Unit Market Stores at Fiapre

Market Centre and rehabilitation of some feeder roads as some of the projects the government had executed.

He also mentioned the construction of the 100-bed Agenda 111 Hospital at Odomase as one of the monumental projects of the NPP government.

Mr Nsor expressed the need for the constituents to vote for the incumbent MP, Mr Baffuor-Awuah, and the NPP Presidential Candidate, Alhaji Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, to continue the numerous developmental projects currently ongoing in the constituency. 

Unemployment

A retired Midwife, Amina Hamdia, told the Daily Graphic there was high unemployment in the constituency, which had resulted in incidences of robbery and drug abuse among the youth.

Odomase-Sunyani road

She therefore appealed to the government to establish factories to reduce unemployment in the area.

Mrs Hamdia said both NPP and NDC had no feelings about the plight of the people.

MP

Speaking immediately after his re-election for the fourth time in the party primaries, the MP, Mr Baffuor-Awuah, said his endorsement by the party to contest the 2024 election showed the level of confidence the delegates had in him.

He said he would work with all the party members, including those who contested him to retain the seat.

"I will work with everybody, whether you worked against me or not. As long as you remain a member of the party, I am ready to work with you. I have opened my doors," he said.

NDC candidate

At a function to start the rehabilitation of some bad roads at Nsoatre, the NDC's parliamentary candidate, Ms Yeboah, said the MP had totally neglected the development of the constituency.

She accused the incumbent MP of abandoning the people in the area.

Ms Amankwah said as a result she had started some development initiatives such as the rehabilitation of bad roads to bring relief to the people.

She said the MP had been in politics for about 20 years, occupied several positions but had done little to support the development of the area.

She said though she was in opposition, she was determined to use the minimal resources to support the development of the area.

Profile

The Sunyani West District Assembly was carved out of Sunyani East on November 1, 2007 through the Legislative Instrument (LI) 1881 and inaugurated on 29th February 2008, with Odomase as its capital.

A section of the Nsoatre town roads

However, Sunyani West Constituency formed part of the original 21 constituencies in the then Brong Ahafo Region when the Fourth Republic began in January 7, 1993.

The NPP did not take part in the December 1992 Parliamentary Election because it accused the Electoral Commission of rigging the Presidential Election held two weeks earlier in favour of the NDC.

Hence, the NDC's Sunyani West Parliamentary Candidate, Joseph Gyamfi had a smooth sail by winning the seat with 7,134 votes.

The constituency has a total land area of 1,031 square kilometres, which is located in the western part of the region.

It shares common boundaries with the Wenchi Municipality to the north, Offinso North District to the East, Sunyani Municipal to the South, Berekum East Municipal to the West,

Dormaa Central Municipal, Dormaa East District to the South-West and Tain District to the North-West.

The population of the area, according to the 2021 Population and Housing Census, stands at 136,022 with 67,251 males and 68,771 females.

The constituency has major communities such as Odumase, Nsoatre, Chiraa, Fiapre, Dumasua, Abesu, Abronye, Adantia, Adei Boreso, Ahyiaem and Ayakomaso.

Others are Asuakwa, Kantro, Kobedi, Kwabenakumakrom, Kwatire, Mantukwa, Nsesereso and Twumasi krom.

The area's economy is based on agriculture as almost all the communities are involved in farming, producing food crops such as maize, cassava, yam, plantain, cocoyam, rice, tomatoes and cashew in commercial quantities.

The constituency hosts the University of Energy and Natural Resources (UENR), Catholic University of Ghana (CUG), the Sunyani Airport and the Public Employment Centre at Odumase.

Conclusion

If past elections are anything to go by then the NPP's parliamentary candidate, Mr Baffuor-Awuah, will retain the Sunyani West seat on December 7, 2024.

However, NDC's Amankwah who contested Mr Baffuor-Awuah and lost in the 2020 general election can pull a surprise if the NPP becomes complacent about their past electoral records in the constituency. 

Writer's email: [email protected]