Female parliamentary candidates determined to work hard
Two female parliamentary candidates contesting the forthcoming election in the Eastern Region have indicated their determination to work hard to win the election against their male counterparts.
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The New Patriotic Party (NPP) parliamentary candidate for the Akwatia Constituency, Mrs Mercy Adu-Gyamfi, who is battling it out with Mr Baba Jamal, the incumbent MP, former Deputy Eastern Regional Minister, and currently, a Deputy Minister of Employment and Labour Relations, says she is not “haunted by the stature of her contender”.
The other candidate is Ms Lawrencia Dziwonu, the National Democratic Congress (NDC) parliamentary candidate for the Akuapem South Constituency, who is contesting the upcoming parliamentary election with Mr O. B Amoah, a former Minister of State under President Kufuor’s administration, and Mr Opare Addo, the Eastern Regional Chairman of the Convention People’s Party (CPP). She has said that voting for a change of the “NPP representative in parliament is long overdue”.
Challenges
In an interview with the Ghana News Agency on its ‘women’s profile’ initiative to project the female parliamentary candidates, Mrs Adu-Gyamfi noted that challenges confronting women and girls across the country were critical and called for positive steps from women in leadership, adding that, voting for more women to go to Parliament would help promote gender parity and offer positive steps to reduce the challenges confronting women and the needy, help reduce poverty and improve their living conditions.
She has, therefore, called on all women, irrespective of their background, to vote massively for women contesting in their respective constituencies in the forthcoming presidential and parliamentary elections, and also appealed to people in the Akwatia Constituency to give her the nod to prove her worth because she would not let them down, since she was born and bred in the area.
Mrs Adu-Gyamfi, a married woman with six children, is a businesswoman who trained as a hairdresser, but later entered into trading activities at Akwatia.
She started political activities at a tender age and had held many positions in the NPP in the constituency, including serving as a polling station women’s organiser and constituency women’s organiser for the past 12 years.
Change in development
For her part, Ms Dziwonu has called on the constituents to change their representative for the area in the upcoming November 7, elections, to bring a change in development.
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She said she was aware that the seat was known to be one of the safe seats for the NPP and also knew that the incumbent MP was a force to reckon with, but she still expressed confidence that the electorate would vote for her based on the NDC’s record of infrastructure development, and added that the NDC had demonstrated beyond measure its capacity to develop the country “and Aburi and its environs are no exception”.
Focus
The candidate indicated that when voted as MP, she would focus on economic development, mentioning the Aburi Craft Village, boost petty trading among women, as well as focus on skills training for the teaming youth to equip them with employable skills. She would also enhance women empowerment through supporting girls to stay in school and continue to appreciable levels.
Ms Dziwonu, who contested with two men including Mr Kwadwo Afari-Djan, DCE for Akuapem South Constituency, and Ambassador Ntow Boahen during the NDC primaries and won, is sure to wrest the seat from the NPP, come November 7 and appealed to the people to vote for her.
The candidate is an old girl of Aburi Girls Secondary School, holds a Bachelor’s degree in Political Science from the University of Ghana and Master of Arts degree in Energy and Corporate Social Responsibility from the University of Aberdeen, Scotland.