Road to Election 2024: Scramble for Bono East: Will Kintampo North, Pru East leave the umbrella’s shade?

Since 1996, the National Democratic Congress (NDC) has been the landlord in Bono East, coming tops in the presidential elections and also annexing the most parliamentary seats in the constituencies in every election.

Until 2019 though, Bono East was very much part of the then Brong Ahafo Region. However, since the Regional Reorganisation Policy Implementation took off that year (2019), Bono East has become one of the six newly created regions in the country with Techiman as its capital.

Specifically, the Bono East Region was created on February 13, 2019 with the constitutional instrument (C.I.) 113, after the people in the area voted yes to the creation of a new region on December 27, 2018.

The region comprises 11 constituencies (incidentally the same number and names as its municipal and district assemblies), eight of which are currently occupied by the NDC, while the ruling party, the New Patriotic Party (NPP), has three of the seats.

The NDC’s seats are: Atebubu/Amanting, Kintampo North, Pru East, Sene East, Sene West, Techiman North, Nkoranza North and Nkoranza South.

The NPP on the other hand currently occupies the Kintampo South, Pru West and Techiman South seats.

With a population of 1,203,400 comprising 603,136 males and 600,264 females according to the 2021 Population and Housing Census, the region could contribute a significant number of votes in the coming election, which means any political party that ignores that fact may do so at its own peril.

The NDC factor

But while available statistics show that of the two main parties in the country currently, it is the NDC that has over the years held the most seats, the NPP has bettered its lot in some of the elections, whereas the NDC has lost marginally at some points.

Map of Pru East

In 1996 the NDC held all the three seats in the area but lost a seat to the NPP in the 2000 election. When the constituencies were increased to nine in 2004, the NDC took the larger chunk (seven seats), while the NPP managed the remaining two.

Come the next parliamentary election in 2008 and the NPP will gain one more seat, making theirs three, while the NDC had to be contented with six (two-thirds of the seats).

However, in the next election (2012), the NDC was able to pull some magic to claim all but one of the seats. In the 2016 polls though, the NPP would give the NDC a run for their money by taking five of the seats and leaving six for them.

The fight for supremacy continued in 2020 with the NDC staging a comeback and claiming eight seats thus reducing the NPP’s five seats to three.

The presidential elections in the region have followed a similar trend before and after creation of the region, with the NDC beating the NPP in vote percentages. In 1996, the NDC stretched the NPP by 68.9 per cent to 28.1 per cent of the votes.

In the 2000 election, the NPP did better with 41.9 per cent of the votes but the NDC still emerged winner with 53.2 per cent.

Perhaps seeing that they were losing ground, the NDC put in some work before the 2004 election, which paid off as the party increased its votes to 56.6 per cent. That invariably led to the NPP losing marginally by one per cent, obtaining 40.9 per cent.

The ding-dong battle continued in the 2008 presidential election, with the NPP also making some gains over the previous year, by taking 43.2 per cent of the votes.

However, although the NDC experienced a reduction in votes, it still won with 54.8 per cent.

The NDC once again staged a comeback in the next election (2012), improving its number of votes to 59.8 per cent (five per cent increase), whereas the NPP experienced a decline, attaining 38.8 per cent.

Having realised the steep drop in its votes, the NPP swung into action in 2016, taking 45.8 per cent of the votes cast, while the NDC lost seven per cent of its votes, garnering 52.8 per cent.

The NDC, nonetheless, consolidated its hold in the 2020 election, not only increasing its votes in the presidential election to 54.69 per cent, but also stretching the NPP by over 10 per cent of the votes cast.

The NPP took 44.29 per cent, while the remainder of the votes were shared by the other political parties, none of which obtained one per cent.

Over the years the NDC has shown itself as the stronger of the two main political parties in the country when it comes to annexing seats in Bono East.

But the NPP has always been in hot pursuit and any slip could result in a loss of any of the seats currently being held by the NDC as has happened over the years. 

Will the two Kintampo and two Pru seats leave the shade currently being provided by the NDC umbrella?

Kintampo North

The Kintampo North Constituency is traditionally an NDC seat, which the party has held on to since the 2004 election.

The seat is currently occupied by politician and educationist, Joseph Kwame Kumah, who took the largest chunk of votes at the last election (33,460), which made up 62.98 per cent of the ballots cast.

His closest contenders were the NPP’s Michael Sarkodie Baffoe who had 16,499 of the votes (31.05 per cent) and an independent candidate, Francis Akwasi Owusu Boateng, who could only manage 3,170 votes (5.97 per cent).

Born January 24, 1974, Joseph Kumah, a former housemaster with the Ghana Education Service who serves as a member of the Judiciary and Education committees in Parliament, holds a postgraduate certificate in Public Administration as well as a Master of Arts degree in Local Government Administration and Organisation from the Institute of Local Government Studies.

An intriguing development at the Kintampo North Constituency is how the current seat occupant – the NDC, consistently lost some votes in four elections from 2004, while the NPP increased its votes during that period.

In 2004 the NDC obtained 61.7 per cent, had 54.7 per cent of the votes in 2008, 54.2 per cent in 2012 and 53.9 in 2016.

There was, however, a reawakening in 2020, where the NDC’s percentage shot up to 62.98, but it is left to be seen if the party would improve its performance in the upcoming election or suffer a reduction in its share of the voter cake.

The NPP had 33 per cent of the votes in 2004, which appreciated to 41.4 in 2008, rose marginally to 41.7 in 2012 and further shot up to 42.4 per cent in 2016.

However, the ruling party could not sustain the momentum, and fell to 31.05 per cent votes (about 10 per cent loss) in the 2020 election.

Pru East

Originally part of the larger Pru District, the Pru East District/ Constituency was created in 2004 with Yeji as its capital. It shares boundaries with East Gonja Municipality (Northern Region) to the north, Sene West to the East, and Pru West district to the south.

According to the Ghana Statistical Service, the population of the district (constituency) in 2018 stood at 106,282, comprising 52,123 males (49 per cent) and 54,159 females (51 per cent). With a growth rate of 2.7 per cent, the population of the district for the year 2021 was estimated to be 112,099.

The constituency has since its creation been occupied by the NDC, with the party’s first Member of Parliament (MP), Masoud Baba Abdul-Rahman, enjoying two terms (2004, 2008).

After his tenure came Kwabena Donkor, who won the election in 2012 with a whopping 15,906 votes (61.50 per cent), thus stretching closest rival, NPP’s King-David Kwao Amoah, who only managed to grab 6,130 of the votes (23.70 per cent) that year.

Kwabena Donkor

Kwabena Donkor, a politician and former Minister of Power, went on to win subsequent elections (2016 and 2020) to hold the seat for three terms. In 2016 he obtained 13,512 votes (56.19 per cent) as against that by his closest rival, the NPP’s King-David Kwao Amoah who had 8,749 (36.38 per cent), while in the 2020 election he amassed 21,153 votes (62.7 per cent) and left 36 per cent for his closest rival.

Born on February 5, 1958, in Lonto, Yeji in the Bono East Region, Kwabena Donkor holds a PhD and master's degree from the University of Bristol, and a master of business administration from Lancaster University.

He served as the deputy minister of information from 2013 to 2014 and is a founder member of the Petroleum Commission where he served as its chief executive officer in 2014.

In Parliament he is the Ranking Member of the Employment, Social Welfare and State Enterprises Committee; as well as a member of the Standing Orders Committee and the Mines and Energy Committee.

In spite of the rise and fall in the performance of the NDC since the creation of the constituency (63.1 per cent, 42.1 per cent, 61.5 per cent, 56.2 per cent and 62.7 per cent), the party has always been victorious at the polls.

However, if the swinging pendulum should continue, then a reduction in votes percentage for the NDC is expected at the December polls.

What is not certain is whether the NPP, the closest rivals in all the polls could capitalise on history to wrest the seat from the NDC’s new face for 2024, Banker, Emmanuel Kwaku Boam, or continue its losing streak and thus repeat history.