The National Communication Director of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) Sammy Gyamfi has told the NPP to be worried about the alarmingly high voter apathy in Kumawu.
Ernest Yaw Anim of the NPP won the by-election with a huge gap against his main competitors Kwasi Amankwaa of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and Kwaku Duah Snr who contested as an independent candidate.
Ernest Yaw Anim who is an astute accountant accumulated 15, 264 votes against Kwasi Amankwaa and Kwaku Duah Snr who amassed 3,723 and 2,497 respectively.
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He has replaced Philip Basoah who was announced dead on March 28, 2023 hence the by-election.
Despite the NPP winning the by-election and maintaining the Kumawu seat, Sammy Gyamfi believes the NDC performed extraordinary as compared to their figures in the 2020 general elections.
“Folks, in the 2020 general elections, the NDC Parliamentary Candidate for the Kumawu Constituency got 2,493 votes representing 8.3% of valid votes, per the Electoral Commission’s certified results”, Sammy Gyamfi posted on Facebook.
He added; “However, in the just-ended Kumawu by-election, provisional results collated by the NDC show that the Parliamentary Candidate for the NDC got 3,633 votes representing 16.94%. Note that this is more than an 8% increase of our 2020 parliamentary votes in percentage terms. Also, it means that, in nominal terms, the NDC has increased its parliamentary votes by 1,140.”
Read full statement below
Sammy Gyamfi Esq writes;
Folks, in the 2020 general elections, the NDC Parliamentary Candidate for the Kumawu Constituency got 2,493 votes representing 8.3% of valid votes, per the Electoral Commission’s certified results.
However, in the just-ended Kumawu by-election, provisional results collated by the NDC show that the Parliamentary Candidate for the NDC got 3,633 votes representing 16.94%. Note that this is more than an 8% increase of our 2020 parliamentary votes in percentage terms. Also, it means that, in nominal terms, the NDC has increased its parliamentary votes by 1,140.
It is instructive to note, that in the 2020 general elections, the NPP’s Parliamentary candidate for the Kumawu Constituency had 14,960 votes representing 51.11% of valid votes, while the independent candidate from the NPP’s fold had 11,698 votes representing 39.96% of valid votes.
Interestingly, in the just-ended by-election, the NPP candidate had 15,258 votes while the independent candidate garnered only 2,498.
What this means in nominal terms is that, after all the unprecedented vote buying we witnessed in Kumawu, the NPP managed to increase their votes by a paltry 298 (15,258- 14,960), while about 8,902 voters (11,698- 2,498-298) who voted for the independent candidate from the NPP’s fold in 2020, decided not to vote in the by-election at all.
Clearly, our friends in the NPP must be very worried about this alarmingly high voter apathy in Kumawu which can possibly reflect in the 2020 presidential polls.
Given the fact that Kumawu is one of the hard line traditional strongholds of the NPP in the Ashanti region and given the unprecedented vote buying the NPP and the Akufo-Addo/Bawumia government engaged in the run up to this Kumawu by-election, the results from the Kumawu by-election is VICTORY for the great NDC. There is however more room for improvement for the NDC.
Aluta Continua, Victoria Acerta.
