Who wins Agona East NPP primary?
The three candidates aspiring to lead the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) in the Agona East Constituency in the Central Region into the 2020 general election have expressed optimism of securing a resounding victory in the party’s primary which is slated for Saturday, September 28, 2019.
The constituency is among the only three orphan constituencies in the region where parliamentary primaries would be held. The ruling NPP currently occupies 19 seats out of the 23 with the remaining three being held by the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC).
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The aspiring candidates are leaving no stone unturned as they have intensified their campaigns in their bid to win the trust of the delegates as the clock is gradually ticking towards election day.
The candidates are criss-crossing the various polling stations in the constituency both day and night to meet and convince the delegates to vote for them as the next parliamentary candidate for the area on the ticket of the NPP.
The aspiring candidates are the Minister of State in charge of Tertiary Education, Professor Kwesi Yankah, a renowned educationist, Mr Prince Yaw Essah, a Chartered Accountant and Tourism Development Fund Administrator at the Ghana Tourism Authority and an Economics Lecturer at the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA), Dr Kennedy Abrokwa.
The seat is currently occupied by the NDC Member of Parliament (MP), Mrs Queenstar Maame Pokuah Sawyerr.
Yaw Essah
Mr Essah sees himself as the most preferred candidate to lead the NPP into the 2020 elections since he had been very loyal and supportive to the cause of the party in the constituency over the years.
The Chartered Accountant is optimistic of a landslide victory because, according to him, he was a ‘local boy’ and a true party member who had been well-groomed for the position and easily approachable by the constituents.
In a telephone interview with the Daily Graphic, he said, he stood tall among the candidates and that he was the only marketable candidate among the aspirants who could appeal to all groups of people in the constituency.
He stated that through his vision dubbed: “Jobs for the youth, development for all”, he would harness the potential in the area to create jobs for the teeming unemployed youth to ensure the ultimate development of the district.
He added that the assembly was unable to rake in more Internally Generated Fund and that when elected as the MP in 2020, he would assist the assembly to put in place the required structures to raise more revenue locally to drive the development of the area.
Dr Abrokwa
Dr Abrokwa, also thinks his chances are brighter since he appeals largely to the youth. He is poised to develop the capacity of the youth in the area and harness their entrepreneurial skills if elected as MP.
He stressed that youth unemployment was very high in the area and that as a way of addressing it, he would champion an industrialisation drive by attracting investors to set up cottage industries, as well as the modernisation of agriculture to attract the youth to venture into agriculture to boost the local economy.
Prof. Yankah
Since the NPP has only occupied the seat for eight years since 1992, Prof. Yankah regards himself as the only person who has the capacity to end the dominance of the NDC in the constituency, hence his motivation to enter the race.
According to him, the party needed an influential, well-connected and development-oriented individual who could lobby and work to address the challenges confronting the people in the constituency, particularly, in the area of human capital development.
He says that as a Minister of State, he has already attracted a number of development projects to the area especially education and rural electrification and urged the delegates to give him the nod so as to bring more of such projects into the district.