Political tsunami hits NPP parliamentarians

A major political tsunami has swept away some bigwigs in Parliament, with majority of the casualties coming from the camp of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP), with the National Democratic Congress (NDC) as the biggest beneficiary.

The Minister of Communications and Digitalisation, Ursula Owusu-Ekuful, three-time Member of Parliament (MP) for Ablekuma West, Accra, failed in her fourth attempt to annex the NPP’s traditional seat, losing to the NDC’s Rev. Kweku Addo, who flipped the seat for the first time since his party’s 1992 easy victory.

Other casualties are the Minister of Trade and Industry, K. T. Hammond, MP for Adansi-Asokwa, Ashanti Region, who lost to NDC’s Godwin Animli Dorani; NPP MP for Ayawaso Central, Accra, and the Minister for the Interior, Henry Quartey, who lost to NDC’s Abdul Rauf Tubazi; NPP MP for Nandom, Upper West Region, and Minister of State at the Presidency, Ambrose Dery, who was unseated by the NDC candidate and former Director-General of the Ghana Prisons Service, Dr Richard Kuu-ire; NPP MP for Sekondi and Minister of Tourism and Creative Arts, Andrew Egyapa Mercer, Western Region, to Blay Nyamekye Armah, NDC, and Andrew Appiah-Kubi, who lost to an independent candidate, Ohene Kwame Frempong.

The other losers are the NPP MP for Kwesimintsim and a Deputy Minister of Works and Housing, Dr Prince Hamid Armah, who was beaten by NDC’s candidate, Philip Fiifi Buckman.

The NPP MP for Dormaa East, Paul Twum Barimah, was whipped by the NDC’s Rachel Owusua; the NPP MP for Mfantseman and Minister of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation, Ophelia Mensah Hayford, lost to NDC’s Prince Ebenezer Arhin, with the incumbent NPP MP for the Sunyani East, Kwasi Ameyaw-Cheremeh, losing to NDC’s candidate, Seid Mubarak.

The NPP MP for Okaikoi South, Dakoa Newman, also lost to the NDC’s Ernest Adomako Keon; in Yendi, the incumbent NPP MP, Farouk Aliu Mahama, lost to the NDC’s Abdul-Fataw Alhassan; Nelson Kyeremeh of the NPP for Berekum East, lost to Ampaabeng Kyeremeh of the NDC, while incumbent NPP for Bortianor Ngleshie Amanfro, Sylvester Tetteh, lost to the NDC’s Felix Okle Akwetey, while Hajia Fatahiya Abdul Aziz of the NPP snatched the Savelugu seat in the Northern Region from NDC’s Abdulai Jacob Iddriss.

The befuddling results also saw the NPP MP for Tano South, Benjamin Yeboah Sekyere, losing to NDC’s Charles Asiedu, the son of the National Chairman of the NDC, Johnson Asiedu Nketiah, while John Dumelo of the NDC beat his main contender, Lydia Seyram Alhassan, MP for Ayawaso West Waguon Constituency in Accra, who is the Minister of Sanitation and Water Resources.

The NPP MP for Hohoe and Minister of Railways Development, John Peter Amewu, lost the seat after his first term to NDC’s Thomas Worlanyo Tsekpo.

New entrants

For the first time since 2012, Akuapem South seat has fallen to the NDC. Lawrencia Adwoa Dziwornu, wrested the seat from NPP’s Eric Apeadu Yeboah, who was hoping to succeed his brother, O. B. Amoah.

A former General-Secretary of the Ghana Medical Association (GMA), Dr Titus Kofi Beyuo, beat incumbent MP for Lambussie, Bright B. Y. Baligi, while in the Gomoa Central Constituency, Kwame Asare Obeng, alias A-Plus, won the seat as an independent candidate by beating the incumbent NPP MP, Naana Eyiah Quansah, while for the Assin Central Constituency, the NDC candidate, Nurein Shiabu Migyimah, defeated his  NPP counterpart, Godfred Anewu, who replaced the retiring MP, Kennedy Agyapong, for the seat.

Other newcomers to the Ninth Parliament are NDC’s Henry Godfred Bentil, who defeated the incumbent NPP MP for Mpohor, John Kobina Abbam Aboah Sanie; Faustina Ekliplim Akurugu defeated Mike Oquaye Jnr. for the Dome-Kwbenya seat; with Felix Kwakye Ofosu snatching the Abura-Asebu-Kwamankese parliamentary seat from the NPP candidate, Eric Kobina Nyanteh.

The fall of the bigwigs has sent shockwaves through the political landscape in the country, especially with seats considered to be in the stronghold of the NPP.

The NPP will certainly have to do some introspection to find out the reason for such a heavy loss.

Lessons

Reacting to the outcome of the parliamentary results, a political scientist, Dr John Osae-Kwapong, said voters were increasingly becoming aware that the key tool of accountability available to them was election.

“It is imperfect because it means citizens have to wait in a four-year cycle to pull this lever,” he said.

“Nonetheless, the biggest lesson to our politicians is this - being unresponsive to the everyday needs of citizens has electoral consequences,” he said, adding that “citizens are ready to use the ballot to express their displeasure and hold politicians accountable”.

Collation

While polling went on smoothly and fast in almost all 40,976 polling stations across the country, the collation has been uncharacteristically sluggish.

“As of 2:30p.m., no results had been certified and declared. As usual, results started trickling in from the regions with smaller sizes of voter numbers and areas considered safe seats for any of the NPP and  opposition NDC.

The Daily Graphic has gathered that one of the reasons for the delay is the late arrival of Presiding Officers (POs) from the Polling Stations to the Collation Centres.

Some said that they had closed the poll on time but the transmission of the ballot boxes and the pink sheets to the collation centres had been the challenge.