The opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP), and the governing National Democratic Congress (NDC), are battling to grab the Sekondi constituency in the Western Region in the December 7 general election.
NPP has won the seat in five consecutive elections since 1996, with Papa Owusu-Ankomah, a former Majority Leader in Parliament and Minister of State occupying the seat for the whole period.
However, the governing NDC has vowed to snatch it in the 2016 December 7 polls.
Analysts say it will be a difficult task for the NDC to win the seat, which is considered to be one of the strongholds of the NPP.
Both parties have new candidates contesting the December polls, after long-serving MP, Papa Owusu Ankomah, opted not to contest again.
He has been replaced by another lawyer, Andrew Agyapa Merker, who the residents say is a ‘home boy.’
The governing NDC is also presenting Emmanuel Assifuah, an employee at the Western Regional Lands Commission, also known to have some suport in the area.
Papa Owusu-Ankomah won the seat narrowly in 2012 with 14,735 votes, to beat the NDC’s candidate, Anthony Richard Cudjoe, who obtained 13,644.
But speaking to Citi FM’s Samurais on constituency watch ahead of the December polls, the Sekondi Constituency Chairman of the NPP, Erasmus Baidoo Cudjoe, said the party will win the 2016 polls with a wider margin.
Samurais are Citi FM’s pre-election monitory team in the Southern Sector of the country, looking at the issues that would decide the upcoming elections.
The other team, known as the Delta Squad covered the Northern part of the country.
According to the NPP Constituency chairman, the gap between NPP and NDC was narrow because there was “this perception that Papa Owusu-Ankomah had stayed for too long and the people wanted him to rest. After the 2012 elections, we set up a committee to investigate why our votes have been dropping and the report was that our MP has been there for so long. The people needed a change.
“The new candidate we have is a home boy and with the house-to-house campaign he is embarking upon, our victory will be massive,” Mr. Cudjoe reiterated.
He explained that, the NPP is still strong in the constituency because the party’s Presidential Candidate, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo won with a difference of about 3,437 votes.
“We will make sure the margin increases so that Nana Addo becomes President of Ghana come 2017,” Mr. Cudjoe stated.
However, the NDC’s Western Regional Secretary, Joseph Nelson, is optimistic the governing party will win the seat for the first time since 1996.
“President Mahama has brought a lot of development projects to Sekondi and what the people want is development. We are just waiting for the D-day to retain President Mahama in power and we will also win the seat,” the NDC chairman maintained.
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(Via: CitiFM Online Ghana)
