NDC’s Baidoo elected Akwatia MP
Bernard Bediako Baidoo of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) claimed a comfortable victory over Solomon Kwame Asumadu of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) in yesterday’s parliamentary by-election in Akwatia, adding one more seat to the NDC’s dominance in the legislature.
Mr Baidoo, a 40-year-old lawyer and Akwatia constituency secretary of the NDC, polled 18,199 votes out of 33,819 total votes cast that fetched him 54.29 per cent of the votes, while Mr Asumadu, a small-scale miner, polled 15,235 votes that left him trailing with 45.45 per cent.
A third contestant, Patrick Owusu of the Liberal Party of Ghana (LPG), came a distant third with a meagre 82 votes that amounted to 0.24 per cent of the valid votes against 303 rejected ballots.
After Mr Baidoo was declared the MP-elect by the returning officer of the constituency, Eric Owusu Gyamfi, at about 9:40 p.m., he thanked the electorate and the people of Akwatia for reposing confidence in him and the NDC.
He said Akwatia remained a mining town only that mining had to be done responsibly, a job he would take up seriously.
“The electorate gave us hope, which has resulted in victory today.”
“Akwatia’s name has always been associated with mining. So you can’t take away the mining, we only have to do it lawfully. That’s what we are going to work on,” he said.
“What we are looking for is development and we will make sure we deliver,” Mr Baidoo added.
Jubilation
The climax was a carnival of NDC supporters who thronged the streets, especially at Boadua, in spontaneous jubilation.
A large crowd also gathered at Boadua where they were joined briefly by the MP-elect to celebrate the hard-fought victory.
In some way, it proved an anti-climax for the NPP.
The party’s MP as emerged from the 2024 election, Ernest Kumi, passed in July this year, just six months into his controversy-strewn reign as parliamentarian of the mining constituency.
Seats in Parliament
The victory also brings the total number of the seats held by the NDC in parliament to 183.
In the very likely event of the party winning the Tamale Central by-election on Tuesday, September 30, this year, it will bring its total number of seats in the House to 184.
There are four other independent candidates that are doing business with the NDC caucus in parliament, enabling it to marshall about 188 MPs, more than two-thirds majority, for major decisions.
Peaceful
The election turned out to be largely peaceful, the day’s activities heavily policed by the 5,500 police officers deployed to the Eastern Regional constituency for the by-election.
Up to the very last moment, both sides of the political divide had held high hopes of triumphing in a constituency that has proven unpredictable, switching between the two main parties equally in eight previous parliamentary elections.
But as clarity began to set in, the NDC began to feel bolder, as feed from the party’s private collation system indicated bright prospects for the party’s candidate.
In the end, NPP party executives and agents abandoned the collation centre at the Denkyembour District Office of the EC.
The poll was characterised by tension, with the pre-event campaigning summoning some of the major names in the country’s politics, compelling the deployment of a heavy police personnel for the by-election.
At a one-week observance for the deceased MP, Ernest Yaw Kumi, key figures such as former President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo; former Vice-President, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, the national executives and MPs of the NPP gave the town an executive appeal.
The Chairman of the NDC, Johnson Asiedu Nketia, and the Chief of Staff, Julius Debrah, led a powerful list of the party’s top brass that perhaps only left out President John Dramani Mahama and his vice, Professor Naana Jane Opoku-Agyemang, to the campaign trail.
By the opening of the poll yesterday, almost everyone of significance in the two parties were in Akwatia, supporting efforts to whip up a high turnout or trying to cause a last-minute change of heart among the about 55,000 registered voters in the constituency.
At a point when tempers flared in what initially looked like a friendly encounter between NDC Vice-Chairman, Chief Sofo Azorka, and NPP Vice-Chairman, Alhaji Osman Masawudu, aka Chairman Buga Buga, the quick intervention of the police muted the nearly physical exchanges.
The two parties shadow-boxed again when the Minority Leader in Parliament, Alexander Afenyo-Markin, and some NPP leaders dragged down a large poster of the NDC candidate hanging in front of the NDC’s local office in close proximity to a polling station.
But for these isolated cases, there was hardly a matter of disagreement of note across the 10 hours of voting, one hour of sorting and counting, and another 90 minutes of collation and declaration of the results at the various polling stations.
Until yesterday, the NDC and the NPP had won the seat four times each in the post-1992 parliamentary elections.
The NPP held the seat in 2000, 2004, 2016 and 2024, while the NDC won it in 1996, 2008, 2012 and 2020.
