Road to Election 2024: Race for Asutifi seats - Let the chess begin

Since Ghana found its way back on the democratic path in 1992, elections have become the mode for the selection of a President for the country as well as legislators to fashion out good laws to rule the country with.

Every four years since we opted for democracy, every adult 18 years and above who has duly registered to cast his or her votes has had to go to the polls, sometimes in the scorching sun, to make a choice between candidates representing various political parties.

Over the past 32 years in the Fourth Republic the race for leadership has mainly been between two political parties — the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the New Patriotic Party (NPP).

Whereas some Ghanaians have started clamouring for a third force so we do away with the NDC-NPP duopoly, it seems farfetched for now, with the majority of Ghanaians opting for either of the two main parties.

The elections have, therefore, always been like the game of chess, with the two proponents always aiming for the majority of the spoils to gain the bragging rights to rule the country.

The game is on again for the 9th time since the Fourth Republic took off in 1992 and contestants all across the country’s 276 constituencies are bracing up to give it their best shot to win the confidence of the people to lead and represent them in Parliament for the next four years.

Are the two main parties going to have a field day as well or smaller ones are going to win in some constituencies?

Asutifi North

Asutifi North which is in the Asutifi North District in the Ahafo Region, is considered a stronghold for the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP). This is due to the fact that the NPP has won this parliamentary seat consecutively in the past five elections.

The seat is currently being occupied by Patrick Banor who was elected on the ticket of the NPP after beating Evans Bobie Opoku during the 2020 NPP parliamentary primaries.

Later in the parliamentary election on December 7, that same year, he won a majority of 18,505 votes representing 52.62 per cent of the total valid votes cast. His close contender, the National Democratic Congress (NDC’s) Ebenezer Kwaku Addo, polled 16,546 votes, representing 47.05 per cent.

Third placed Kofi Annan of the Ghana Union Movement (GUM) had 116 votes (0.33 per cent) of the total valid votes cast, which showed that the contest for the seat was mainly between the NPP and NDC representatives.

Patrick Banor, a politician and an administrator, has, therefore, been the Member of Parliament for the Asutifi North Constituency since January 7, 2021. He is still the man contesting the seat for the NPP come December 7 this year and it is believed that he would once again hold the seat for the party with an appreciable margin as he did in 2024.

In Parliament he is a member of the Subsidiary Legislation and the House committees. Prior to entering politics, Mr Banor, who was born on Friday, June 13, 1975 at Kenyasi No.2. in the Asutifi North District, was the General Manager of Sarfpok Company Limited.

Asutifi South

The Asutifi South Constituency, located in the Asutifi District in the Ahafo Region, so far, is the territory of the NDC, as the party’s current Member of Parliament (MP), Collins Dauda, has ensured it has remained their seat six times since 1992.

He was first elected to Parliament in the 1992 parliamentary election on the ticket of the NDC, making him the first MP for the Asutifi South Constituency in the Fourth Republic. 
He won a second term in the 1996 parliamentary election, but lost his seat in the 2000 parliamentary election.

Alhaji Dauda was elected for the 3rd time as the NDC MP for the Asutifi South Constituency of the then Brong Ahafo Region in the 2004 general elections, thus regaining the seat.

He therefore, represented the constituency in the 4th Parliament of the 4th republic of Ghana. His constituency was a part of the 10 parliamentary seats out of 24 seats won by the NDC in that election for the Brong Ahafo Region.

He, however, lost his grip on the seat for the second time, in the 2008 parliamentary election, to the NPP’s Yiadom Boakye Boateng. With a never-say-die spirit, Alhaji Dauda once again contested and won the seat in the 2012 election. Since then he has maintained the seat from the 6th to the eighth Parliament of the Fourth Republic.

The coming election, therefore, offers the NDC stalwart another opportunity to consolidate the NDC’s hold on the Asutifi South seat or relinquish it to the party’s arch rival, the NPP’s contestant Yaw Owusu Brempong.

Who is Collins Dauda?

Alhaji Collins Dauda, a Muslim, teacher, politician, and the current NDC MP for the Asutifi South Constituency in the Ahafo Region, would have been given the seat he occupies for keeps if the contest were a sport, having possessed the seat for six out of the eight times it has been contested for in elections.

He was born on February 13, 1957 in Mehame in the Ahafo Region. He has two wives with 11 children. He is also a former Minister for Lands and Natural Resources; and Water Resources, Works and Housing (February 2009 to 2016).

Alhaji Dauda is a member of some committees in Parliament. These are Finance, Lands and Forestry and Selection Committee. In addition to serving as a member of the Consultative Assembly, he worked for the Asutifi District Assembly between 1978 and 1981. He was a member of the Consultative Assembly that drew up the 1992 Ghana Constitution between 1991 and 1992.

As a teacher he taught at the Kukuom Agricultural Senior High School from 1985. In 1986, he joined the teaching staff at the Ahafoman Senior High School, where he continued to teach until 1992.

During 2002 and 2004 when he was out of Parliament, he was the Regional Chairman of the NDC in the then Brong Ahafo Region. He was also the Vice-President of the committee on Lands and Forestry between 1994 and 1996.

He later became chairman of the same committee between 1997 and 2000, also serving as member of the Finance and Youth, Sports and Culture committees.

Skirt and Blouse

Although Alhaji Dauda has held the Asutifi South Constituency seat six times, the same cannot be said for the NDC in the area’s presidential election votes since 1996, which can best be described as a ‘skirt and blouse’ voting by the electorate.

This trend started in the year 2004, when despite winning the parliamentary election with 51.7 per cent, the NPP’s John Agyekum Kufuor won a second term in office that year. The constituency gave 51.7 per cent of the votes to Mr Kufuor and 47.3 per cent to Mr Mahama.

The NDC won a minority total of 94 parliamentary seats out of 230 seats that year, which included Alhaji Dauda’s seat which he won with 9,668 votes out of the 18,700 total valid votes cast, equivalent.

He was elected over Thomas Broni of the NPP, Nana Nsiah Ababio Williams Cosmus of the People's National Convention (PNC) and Adu Adjei Augustine of the Convention People's Party (CPP), who obtained 46.90 per cent, 1.20 per cent and 0.30 per cent respectively of total valid votes cast.

And as if taking a cue from the NDC, although the NPP won both the parliamentary and presidential elections in that constituency with 50.9 per cent and 49.3 per cent respectively, the 2008 presidential election was won by the NDC’s John Evans Atta Mills.

The game of chess continued in 2016, when despite winning the Asunafo South seat with 56.7 per cent and the presidential with 52.3 per cent, the NDC lost the presidential election to NPP’s Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.

Again in 2020 the NPP’s Akufo-Addo won a second term in office as President. However, at the Asutifi South Constituency level the NDC outstripped the NPP in votes in both the presidential and parliamentary polls (See infographs).

Is the NDC going to maintain its hold at the constituency level or the NPP is going to up its game to unseat them? December 7 will proffer an answer.