NPP maintains hold on Eastern Region
In line with my prediction, the Eastern Region has once again fallen to the New Patriotic Party (NPP), sweeping most of the 33 parliamentary seats with substantial presidential votes.
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Constituencies where the NPP made significant gains in votes at both presidential and parliamentary levels dwarfing the performance of the NDC are Atiwa East, Atiwa West, Okere, Mpraeso, Abetifi and Akropong.
For instance at Atiwa East, a newly created constituency apart from Madam Abena Osei Asare, a newcomer winning the seat with 16,449 votes as against her closet opponent, NDC’s Asante Forster who garnered 6,480 votes, Nana Akufo-Addo also obtained a whopping 16,513 to beat John Dramani Mahama who had only 6,616 votes.
Another classic example of NPP supremacy is the Okere seat where Dan Kwaku Botwe defeated his closest opponent, NDC’s George Opare Addo by 15,161 votes to 9,680 while Nana Akufo-Addo also beat NDC’s John Mahama by 15,050 to 9806.
The NDC, however, put up a good fight to maintain its hold in the six constituencies which had been in its domain for years with the addition of the Akwatia seat now to be occupied by Baba Jamal Muhamed Ahmed.
The constituencies are Yilo Krobo, Upper Manya Krobo, Lower Manya Krobo, Upper West Akyem, Afram Plains South and Afram Plains North which registered vast differences in both parliamentary and presidential votes in favour of the NDC.
Baba Jamal’s annexation of the Akwatia seat, one of the strongholds of the NPP, can be described as one of the wonders of the elections.
The 42 year-old deputy minister had for over four times unsuccessfully attempted to break the myth surrounding the NPP victories in the constituency and his triumph can be attributed to the role he played in finding an investor for the revamping of the Akwatia Diamond Company whose workers had not been paid for years.
This is because the diamond industry for years had given most of the people in this typical Akyem area their livelihood and decided to play ball with Baba Jamal of northern descent but born and domiciled in the constituency.
Big guns that were silenced included the Eastern Regional Minister, Ambassador Victor Smith of the NDC, Michael Teye Nyaunu, formerly of the NDC who went solo and Madam Dedo Dufie Agyarko who contested for the Lower Manya seat for the second time on the ticket of the NPP and was considered the favourite.
While Ambassador Smith succumbed to NPP’s J. B. Danquah Adu, Nyaunu suffered a humiliating defeat at the hands of NDC’s Ebenezer Okletey Terlabi, currently the Deputy Eastern Regional Minister.
The defeat of NDC’s Julius Debrah by Frederick Opare Ansah of the NPP by 18 votes for the Suhum seat has also proved pundits wrong taking into consideration the defections of many of the NPP members, especially at Nankese, the second largest town in the constituency to the side of Mr Debrah who was on his second attempt to occupy the seat.
Julius Debrah, who was with the view that he had been cheated, complained to the Electoral Commission (EC) officials who indicated that such a dispute could only be addressed by the law court.
Before the elections, many people in the constituencies, especially New Juaben South and New Juaben North as well as other Akan-dominated areas, the stronghold of the NPP were of the view that the huge crowd that received Nana Akufo-Addo in such areas as compared with lesser gatherings enjoyed by President Mahama was an indication of an impending sweet victory for the NPP in the region.
On the contrary, those in the non-Akan-NDC held constituencies who also gave President Mahama tumultuous welcome to their constituencies during his campaign tours kept hoping that the tide that had for years favoured the NPP would change to the side of the NDC in the region.
And while the NPP perception as expected came to fruition, that of the NDC could not materialise, and the voting pattern remained almost the same with the exception of the “Baba Jamal Akwatia miracle” which would continue to baffle political pundits.
On the whole, voting had been successful with the exception of hiccups with the verification process which delayed the voting process and in some polling centres voters had to come the next day to exercise their franchise.
Story by A. Kofoya-Tetteh