The national democratic congress NDC in the 2020 general elections, the NDC Parliamentary Candidate for the Kumawu Constituency got 2,439 votes representing 8.3% of valid votes, per the Electoral Commission’s certified results.
However, in the just-ended Kumawu by-election, the results declared by the EC show that the Parliamentary Candidate for the NDC got 3,723 votes representing 17.29%. What this means in nominal terms is that, the NDC has increased its parliamentary votes by 1,284.
It is instructive to note, that in the 2020 general elections, the NPP’s Parliamentary candidate for the Kumawu Constituency had 14,960 votes representing 51.11% of valid votes, while the independent candidate from the NPP’s fold had 11,698 votes representing 39.96% of valid votes.
Interestingly, in the just-ended by-election, the NPP candidate had 15,264 votes while the independent candidate garnered only 2,478.
What this means in nominal terms is that, after all the unprecedented vote buying we witnessed in Kumawu, the NPP managed to increase their votes by a paltry 304, while about 8,000 voters who voted for the independent candidate from the NPP’s fold in 2020, decided not to vote in the by-election at all (assuming they are real human beings).
In short, the NDC increased its votes by 1,284 while the NPP increased their votes by only 304. The NPP also suffered very high voter apathy and/or voter turnout.
Clearly, our friends in the NPP must be very worried about this alarmingly high voter apathy in Kumawu which can possibly reflect in the 2024 presidential polls.
Given the fact that Kumawu is one of the hard line traditional strongholds of the NPP in the Ashanti region and given the unprecedented vote buying the NPP and the Akufo-Addo/Bawumia government engaged in the run up to this Kumawu by-election, the results from the Kumawu by-election is VICTORY for the great NDC. There is however more room for improvement for the NDC.
And the NDC believe they still have a strong hold in Kumawu to which victory shall prevail in the next 2024 election.
By Rachael Shieley
