Constituency watch: Asawase, hub of rickshaw business - NDC’s safe seat
Created in 2004, the Asawase Constituency has since remained one of the strongholds of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) in the Ashanti Region. It is one of the few seats that can be considered safe for the NDC in the strongest hold of the New Patriotic Party (NPP).
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Besides Asawase, the other constituencies being held by the NDC in the region are Ejura-Sekyedumasi, New Edubiase and Sekyere Afram Plains.
The first to win the Asawase Parliamentary seat for the NDC was Dr Gibril Adamu Mohammed, who passed on after less than a year in office, paving the way for the current Member of Parliament (MP) for the area, Alhaji Muntaka Mohammed Mubarak, to become the next MP through a by-election in 2005.
Alhaji Muntaka won the by-election with 11,142 votes to replace Dr Gibril Adamu Mohammed, who had won the seat in December 2004 with 4,474 votes. Since then, it has been business as usual for the NDC, making the incumbent one of the longest-serving MPs in the Fourth Republic.
In the recently held constituency primaries of the NDC, Alhaji Muntaka again got the nod from the delegates to go for a sixth term.
Dynamics
Asawase has a mixture of a settler community and Ashanti indigenes, but the settlers who seem to be in the majority are predominantly Muslims. It is, therefore, not surprising that the constituency hosts the regional mosque.
The settler community is made up mostly citizens from the upper parts of the country.
It has a high presence of head porters popularly known in the region as ‘paa o paa’ or ‘kayayei’ in Accra. These porters reside in areas such as Aboabo No. 1 and Aboabo No. 2, Nima, Akwatia Line, Alabar, Sabon Zongo or New Zongo, which shares a boundary with the Manhyia Palace, the seat of the Asante Kingdom.
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If the origins of the residents are anything to go by, especially judging from the voting pattern in previous elections, it is not surprising that the constituency always tilts towards the NDC.
Although other political parties such as the Convention People’s Party (CPP), People’s National Convention (PNC) and other smaller parties have always contested the parliamentary elections in the constituency, they have never posed any threat to the two dominant parties in the country — the NPP and NDC. The battle has always been between these two parties.
Previous election results
In 2004, Dr Gibril Adamu won the seat with 33,541 votes, beating the NPP candidate, Patricia Appaigyei (current MP for Asokwa), who garnered 29,067 votes.
In 2008, Alhaji Muntaka retained the seat for the NDC with 36,243 votes, while the NPP candidate, Dr Mohammed Abdul Kabir, polled 27,118 votes - a decline in the votes of the previous candidate.
In 2012, although the NPP candidate, Nana Okyere Tawiah-Antwi, improved on the party performance in the constituency by polling 31,013 votes, it was not enough to wrest the seat from the incumbent who had 43, 917 votes, leaving a gap of almost 13,000 votes.
In 2016, Alhaji Muntaka garnered 39,095, representing 53.57 per cent of the votes, while Alhaji Alidu Seidu of the NPP had 33, 490, which was 45.89 per cent of the votes, which again was an improvement on the performance of the previous candidate.
The CPP and the PPP candidates shared the rest of the votes which were less than one per cent of the total valid votes cast.
In the last election, the performance of the NPP seemed to have taken a nosedive, although for the first time, the party maintained its candidate. Alhaji Alidu Seidu, who was also the Municipal Chief Executive of Asokore-Mampong, got 31,256 votes, about 33.6 per cent of the total votes, which was way less than what he got in 2016.
The incumbent MP, however, improved on his last performance and increased his votes from 39,000 to 61,659 votes, which was about 66.39 per cent of the total votes.
Otumfuo Osei Tutu II Estates at Asokore Mampong
Demography
Per the 2021 Population and Housing Census (PHC), the Asokore Mampong Municipality has a population of 191,402 and a land area of 24.17km, with a literacy rate of almost 79 per cent.
It has 97,896 females and 93,506 males but the population seems to be declining at an annual rate of -4.2 per cent.
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It also has a very youthful population with those between the ages of 15 and 64 years forming about 63 per cent of the total population, while those aged zero to 14 years, form about 33 per
cent.
Some of the rickshaw in the business area of the constituency
Dependency
The youthful population is thus an indication that there is a high dependency rate in the constituency and that the majority of the youth would have to rely on the few who are working for their daily bread.
With the exception of a few government establishments and financial institutions that operate within the constituency, most of the residents are into petty trading and other businesses such as transport and food vending.
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With the introduction of the rickshaw, popularly known as Pragya in the Ashanti Region, the constituency seems to be the hub of this means of commuting in the region.
Most of the youth have ventured into the rickshaw business as a means of survival. They are usually found during the rush hours in the morning and in the evening zigzagging through the vehicles and making use of every available space on the road just to get their passengers to their destinations.
‘Pragya’ has become one of the preferred means of transport for most residents as they are much faster than the usual taxi or mini-buses, popularly known as ‘trotro’.
Asawase can, therefore, be described as the hub of rickshaw in the Ashanti Region. Aside from providing an avenue of employment for the teeming youth in the constituency, it has also created a new line of business for the residents.
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The value chain of the rickshaw business transcends all sectors of the economy, from the importer through the mechanics who assemble parts or repair vehicles, as well as filling stations.
The filling stations are also cashing in big time on the business as they have become one of their key clients.
Challenges
The Aboabo drain which hardly contains the flood water
Just like every part of the country, one of the major challenges facing the municipality is youth unemployment. This explains the high involvement of the youth in the rickshaw business.
The other challenge is the constant flooding as a result of the silting of the Aboabo drainage system, which always overruns its banks whenever it rains.
The indiscriminate disposal of waste into the drains and the unplanned sprawling of slums along the drains have also compounded the situation.
Concerns
A resident of the constituency, Ibrahim Abubakar, told the Daily Graphic that the major concern of the residents was the Aboabo Drainage.
“It floods whenever it rains heavily and at times, lives are lost. I believe if the government manages to solve this, it will stop the perennial flooding and loss of lives and property will be a thing of the past.”
“The other issue is youth unemployment, but we know this is a national problem and cannot be solved locally,” he added.
Peaceful constituency
The Municipal Chief Executive Officer (MCE) of Asokore-Mampong Municipal Assembly, Kennedy Kwasi Kankam, admitted that there were challenges in the municipality just like any other part of the country.
He said the assembly was doing its best within the budget constraints to improve on the infrastructure of the municipality and also dredge the drains to reduce the flooding.
According to him, some of the drains had been dredged but “the indiscipline is such that people keep disposing of waste into the drains all the time.”
He said the main challenge facing the assembly was the level of indiscipline in the municipality.
Aside from that, Mr Kankam, who is the former MP for the Nhyiaeso Constituency, said contrary to public perception, “the area is very peaceful with very low crime rates.”
He said owing to the cultural diversity of the municipality, “I can say that it is one of the most peaceful districts in the country”.
“I deal with about 45 tribal chiefs and if all these people can co-exist peacefully, then I can appreciate what I am talking about.”
Development
The Kumasi Central Mosque
He said the assembly had undertaken a lot of developments in the municipality, including the construction of school blocks, drilling of boreholes and construction of sanitation facilities for schools and communities.
One of the significant infrastructure in the area is the affordable housing scheme christened ‘Otumfuo Osei Tutu II Estates’ at Asokore Mampong.