NDC, NPP scramble for Upper West Region seats

The Upper West Region can be described as one of the strongholds of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) as it has over the years won the popular votes in the region.

Yet, the NDC has vowed to maintain its hold on the region in this year’s election by reclaiming all the seats it lost to the New Patriotic Party (NPP).

Battle for seats

Even though the NDC reclaimed two seats from the NPP in the 2020 parliamentary election and reduced the number of seats held by the NPP from five to three, the NDC still considered it a loss and vowed to reclaim all the 11 seats in the region.

The NDC currently has eight out of the 11 seats in the region, while the NPP has the remaining three.

The eight seats for the NDC are Nadowli-Kaleo, Wa West, Wa East, Daffiama-Issa-Bussie, Sissala West, Wa Central, Jirapa and Lawra. The NPP seats, on the other hand, are Nandom, Sissala East and Lambussie.

At the launch of NDC’s regional campaign, its Regional Chairman, Abdul Nasir Saani, said the party was ready to reclaim all the seats in the region and urged the party faithful and voters in the region to vote massively for the NDC to win all the 11 seats, as well as winning the presidential election for John Dramani Mahama.

In the last presidential election, the NDC polled 238,972 votes, while the NPP polled 121, 230 votes, less than half of what the opposition party had.

However, the NPP said it was aware that the region was the stronghold of NDC but, “we are also making inroads into the region and we are improving on our performance this year”.

The Regional Chairman of the NPP, Alhaji Aziz Abdul Rahman, better known as Alhaji White, told the Daily Graphic that his party would win at least seven seats from the region.

He said the target was to win at least seven seats and not lose any of the seats it currently had to the NDC.

He admitted that some of the seats would be difficult to win not because the government did not do anything in those areas but mainly due to the dynamics of the constituencies.

Nevertheless, he was sure that the NPP would do better than it did in 2020 by winning more seats and increasing its popular votes to shore up the votes for the presidential candidate of the party, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia.

Presidential race

This year, both parties, including the 10 other candidates contesting the presidential elections, would be sharing the 518,365 votes in the region among themselves.

While the other candidates might pull some votes away from the total votes, the real battle is between Dr Bawumia of the NPP and John Dramani Mahama of the NDC.

So far, only the two main parties have been on the ground, criss-crossing the region and campaigning vigorously for both the presidential and parliamentary elections.

The President, Nana Addo Dankwa-Akufo Addo, and his vice, Dr Bawumia, who is the presidential candidate of the NPP, have been in the region on different occasions for official duties and campaign activities, same as the presidential candidate of the NDC, John Mahama.

Unlike Mahama, who has toured most of the constituencies and spent much time in the region to engage with different stakeholders, the campaign of the ruling NPP had been a hush one.

While the NDC seems to be more visible, the NPP appears to be working on the quiet and not making much noise about its activities in the region.

Previous elections

In the second Parliament of the Fourth Republic in 1996, when the region had only eight constituencies, the NDC won all the seats.

However, in 2000 it lost one seat --- Sissala Constituency --- to the People’s National Convention (PNC). On that occasion, Moses Dani Baah won it for the PNC and went ahead to join the NPP, which was then the majority in Parliament .

In the 2004 election, the number of constituencies were increased to 10 and the NPP did not contest the Sissala East election, where Dani Baah stood.

In that election, the NDC maintained its number of seats (seven), while the PNC increased its seats to two by winning both Sissala East and Sissala West, which is the birthplace of Dr Hilla Limann.

However, the NPP won its first seat in the region --- Wa East.

In the presidential election, the NDC had 119,982 votes, representing 56.68 per cent of the total votes cast, while the NPP polled 68,233 votes and the PNC had 20,357 votes, representing 32. 22 per cent and 9.61 per cent respectively.

The NPP made further inroads into the region in the 2008 elections when it increased its number of seats from one to three by winning Lambussie, Lawra and Wa East seats, while the PNC lost one of its seats to the NDC.

Thus, the NDC still maintained its dominance in the region with six seats as against three by the NPP and one by the PNC.

The NDC again won the presidential votes with 116,922 votes as against 81,137 by the NPP, representing 54.36 per cent and 37.7 per cent, respectively.

However, the year 2012 spelt doom for the NPP as it lost all its seats in the region, while the NDC regained its total dominance by winning 10 out of the 11 seats. Interestingly, the 11th seat was won by an independent candidate of the NPP lineage, Paul Derigubaa.

The NDC typically took a chunk of the popular votes, garnering 171,727 votes, representing 65.20 per cent of the votes, with the NPP polling 77,324 votes, representing 29.3 per cent of the total votes cast.

Comeback

The NPP surprisingly bounced back with full force in 2016, moving from zero to five seats. It won the Lawra, Nandom, Sissala East and West and Wa East constituencies.

It also managed to increase its presidential votes from less than 30 per cent in the previous election to 35.94 per cent of the total votes cast, while the NDC polled 167,032 votes, representing 58.37 per cent.

Though the NDC still had a majority in the region, it was reduced to just one.  

In the last election, however, the NDC strategised and won back two of its seats from the NPP, and further increased its presence in the region from six to eight.

Currently, the NDC and the NPP have eight and three seats, respectively, in the region.

While the NDC is bent on reclaiming all the seats to underline its dominance in the region, the NPP is also strategising to increase its footprints in the region by increasing its seats from the current three to seven as part of a grand design to take over the region.

Targeted seats

The seats won by the NPP in previous elections include Wa East, Lawra, Nandom, Sissala East and West and Lambussie constituencies. The party believes it can reclaim all these seats and even add Wa Central that has been the preserve of veteran Rashid Pelpuo of the NDC.