Contest for Wa Central heats up - NPP, NDC eye seat

The race for the Wa Central seat in the Upper West Region, come December 7, promises to be fierce. The vast majority of seats often won by the National Democratic Congress (NDC) in the region were reduced in the 2016 Parliamentary elections, with the New Patriotic Party (NPP) making impressive strides in narrowing the gap.

Whereas, the NDC swept all the 11 seats in the region in previous elections, the NPP, managed to take five seats in 2016.

Thus, the 2020 elections promises to be a hot contest in the region.

While the NDC has promised to will win all the lost seats, the NPP is bent on adding more seats to the five it won in 2016.

The NPP is particularly determined to win the Wa Central seat, which has been occupied by Dr Rashid Pelpuo, since 2004.

Hajia Awudu

The emergence of an unknown 37-year-old businesswoman, Hajia Humu Awudu, the NPP parliamentary candidate for Wa Central, is making some seasoned politicians concerned and worried.

Hajia Awudu won the NPP primaries in the Wa Central Constituency on September 28, 2019, bringing her to the attention of political observers.

She had competed with four other aspirants including a female, Ms Janet Bibii Bashiru, the Wa Municipal Chief Executive (MCE ), Alhaji Issahaku Moomin Tahiru, Mr Salifu Abubakar Orisin and Mr Nurideen Ahmed Froko.

After casting her vote, Hajia Awudu peacefully retired to her home to await the results of the primaries.

After the ballots were counted and her supporters realised that she had emerged victorious, they rushed to her residence and informed her to come to the venue to be officially declared the winner.

With her victory, the battle lines have been drawn between the NPP and the NDC in the constituency.

Discussions

The contest has generated a lot of discussions in some circles in the constituency, as a determined NPP this time wants to capitalise on the seeming cracks within the NDC to capture the Wa Central seat.

Since the country was ushered into the Fourth Republic, there have been only three females MPs in the region. They are Madam Alice Teni Boon, the NDC MP for Lambussie Constituency who won the seat from 1996 to 2004; Madam Halutie Dubie Alhassan, another NDC MP for Sissala East Constituency in 2008 and another former MP for Sissala East in 2012, Hajia Alijata Sulemana Gbentie, who also contested the 2016 elections but lost the seat.

If Hajia Awudu wins the Wa seat, she will become the fourth female MP in the Upper West Region.

With the NPP making inroads in the once NDC-dominated region and winning five out of the 11 seats or constituencies in the 2016 general election, it remains to be seen if the Wa Central seat will be the sixth.

In an interview, Hajia Awudu, said she was a unifier who would ensure that the necessary development and the welfare of the people, especially women, were achieved.

She called on the people to see what the government was doing in the region and vote massively for competent candidates and the government for victory for the party to continue its developmental programmes.

A former NDC Regional Chairman, Alhaji Malik Issahaque, said the party was poised to regain all the seats on December 7, 2020

The party had, therefore, intensified their campaign strategies across the region through various means to ensure that they achieved that result.

According to Alhaji Issahaque, the party did not see any candidate as a threat in the elections, since the campaign strategies had already been deployed and all members and sympathisers were “alert”.

He said the party members were also willing to come out to vote to ensure that the party won the December 7, 2020 elections, overwhelmingly.

Regional EC

In an interview with the Regional Director of the Electoral Commission, Mr Osman Ali, he said none of the smaller political parties including the Convention People’s Party (CPP), Progressive People’s Party (PPP), the People’s National Convention (PNC) and the Great Consolidated Popular Party (GCPP) had so far shown any sign of their preparedness towards the elections.

That, he explained, was because none of those parties had held their primaries as of now.

He said although their representatives attended the Regional Inter - Party Committee (RIPAC) meetings, there were no visible signs of their presence in their offices.