The Upper East Regional Communication Officer for the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Jonathan Abdallah Salifu, is confident that the Regional Minister, Stephen Yakubu and the Deputy Minister for Housing, who doubles as MP for Binduri, Abdulai Abanga could lose their appointed positions because of Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia’s poor performance in the Binduri constituency at the recently ended presidential primaries.
On Saturday, Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia was elected as the flagbearer to contest on the ticket of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) in the 2024 presidential election.
He polled 118,210 of the 192,446 valid votes cast, representing 61.47, to beat his closest competitor, Kennedy Ohene Agyapong, in the keenly contested election.
Mr Agyapong, MP, Assin Central, garnered 71,996 votes, representing 37.41 per cent ahead of two other contenders: former Minister of Agriculture, Dr Owusu Afriyie Akoto, 1,459 votes, translating into 0.76 percent, and former MP for Mampong, Francis Addai-Nimoh, 781 votes, representing 0.41 percent.
A total of 193,346 votes were cast; 900 were rejected.
In the Upper East Region, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia polled 5,218 votes, while his closest contender, Kennedy Agyapong, polled 2,111 votes. But in the Binduri constituency, Kennedy Agyapong polled 294 votes, while Dr. Bawumia polled 70 votes.
When Mr. Abdallah Salifu spoke to Mark Smith on A1 Radio’s Day Break Upper East Show, he mentioned that the poor showing of Dr. Bawumia would be translated by the NPP as no work done by the two leading government appointees in the area. As such, their jobs may be taken from them.
“From the results collated, two or so of the constituencies clearly reject Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia. There were some constituencies where he just won narrowly. The Regional Minister, the only MP for the NPP who doubles, and the Deputy Minister for Works and Housing, in their own constituency, Binduri, Kennedy Ohene Agyapong, floored Bawumia. I don’t know what would happen, but I suspect that they may be reshuffled because of this. They didn’t perform. In that particular constituency, if you want to look at appointees from the region, Binduri has the lion’s share of the region,” he said.
Meanwhile, the New Patriotic Party (NPP) has a damaged corporate reputation. Additionally, with the Vice President being recently elected as flag bearer, the chances of the NPP winning the 2024 election are slim to none. This is according to Dr. Jonathan Asante Otchere, Political political analyst.
Dr. Asante Otchere explained that the NPP may just have befuddled its chances.
“The NPP did not position itself strategically to avoid controversy. Going with Dr. Bawumia is the wrong strategy. Dr. Bawumia has more questions to answer than he has answers. The NPP as a party is corporately damaged. As a corporate entity, it is damaged. It doesn’t have good will. It doesn’t matter who leads them, but I think the electorate could have been easily confused by the presence of the likes of Kennedy Agyapong and could easily have believed.”
“As it stands now, believability and trustworthiness when it comes to Dr. Bawumia is almost close to zero,” he said.
Source: A1radioonline.com|101.1MHz|Mark Kwasi Ahumah Smith|Ghana
