Armah-Kofi Buah survives coastal tsunami
Incumbent Member of Parliament (MP) for Ellembelle, Mr Emmanuel Armah-Kofi Buah, is heaving a sigh of relief after winning one of the most fiercely contested seats in the Western Region.
Advertisement
Mr Buah polled 22,917 votes to beat his closest contender, Mr Kwasi Bonzoh of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), who garnered 20,457 votes.
The NDC MP, who was expected to win convincingly in the 2016 parliamentary election due to some social interventions he had instituted in his constituency, is the first to admit that he survived a coastal tsunami.
Rural support
Mr Buah, who doubled as the campaign coordinator of the NDC in the Western Region, told the Daily Graphic in an interview that the retention of the seat was due to the overwhelming support of the rural communities in Ellembelle.
“I can say authoritatively that rural communities in Ellembelle stood up for me because of the massive social interventions I instituted in the areas.
“I have established mobile clinics in a lot of the rural communities where I had transferred about 100 elderly people to care centres to be properly taken care of,” he added.
Social interventions
He had also sponsored the youth to acquire employable skills, coupled with the government’s infrastructure developments such as the rural electrification project, the Atuabo Gas Processing facility and road construction.
Mr Buah first won the Ellembelle seat in 2008 from Mr Freddy Blay, the then CPP Member of Parliament and a former First Deputy Speaker.
The Ellembelle seat was very crucial for the NDC because it was the only coastal seat the party could retain in the Western Region, having lost Jomoro and Evalue Gwira.
Other contestants
In the 2016 election, Mr Kenneth Attobrah of the Progressive People’s Party (PPP) polled 507 votes, while Mr Ebenezer Someah-Addae of the Convention People’s Party (CPP) had 125 votes, Mr Joseph Justice Kwaw of the National Democratic Party (NDP) had 48 votes and Mr Mathias Bonzo Ewereko Boateng, an Independent Candidate, polled 22 votes.
In the 2012 general election, Mr Buah polled 26,344 votes, while Mr Bonzoh garnered 18,067 votes, indicating that the MP’s votes had reduced by 8,277, while that of his rival, Mr Bonzoh, appreciated by 2,390 votes.