The Ejura-Sekyedumase Constituency of the Ashanti region is one of the key places to look out for in the December general elections, as a former Member of Parliament, who is also the current Municipal Chief Executive for the area, is staging a comeback against his 2016 opponent, an incumbent NDC MP.
Being one of the three seats occupied by the NDC in the region, the incumbent MP is hopeful he will retain the seat based on the party’s track record.
The Ejura-Sekyedumase Constituency is predominantly a farming area.
Since the 4th Republic, the National Democratic Congress, NDC, has won more parliamentary seats than the NPP.
In 2000, the NDC’s Sampson Atakora won the seat.Alhaji Issifu Pangabu also represented the party in 2004 and 2008 and won again.
The New Patriotic Party was, however, able to snatch the seat from the NDC for the first time in 2012 when Mohammed Salisu Bamba won in a close contest with the then incumbent, Alhaji Issifu Pangabu of the NDC.
However, NDC’s John Mahama won the presidential election with over 55%.
The NDC attributed their 2012 defeat to internal wrangling that existed within the party.
The NPP’s Mohammed Salisu Bamba was unable to retain the seat in 2016, as he lost to NDC’s Mohammed Bawa Braimah.
Salisu of the NPP is, however, staging a comeback, and he is confident of winning the seat, banking his hopes on his MCE position.
According to him, residents have seen and benefited from several developmental projects since he became the MCE.
“The people don’t vote for nothing. The people of Ejura Sekyedumase are yearning for development. When I was an MP, I was able to put up a CHPS compound, accident and emergency unit, provided an ambulance for the constituency and furnished the health directorate. The person who came after me, this is his fourth year term and has not been able to put up a CHPS compound”.
He added that the 2020 election would be the best time to assess the performance of the two Parliamentary Candidates since they have both been MCEs and MPs for the area.
“The business of I went to parliament and my government was not there has been broken because when I also went to parliament my government wasn’t there. It was the era of John Mahama and I was an NPP parliamentarian. Now my MP is from NDC and my government is in power and I expect him to do at least up to what I did, not less. In any case, the common fund and other funds that are used to do those things have increased one way or the other. ”
The incumbent MP, Mohammed Bawa Braimah, is also confident of winning the election.
He believes that based on his track record as well as the NDC’s efforts in driving development in the constituency, he will be retained.
“A lot of developmental projects you see in Ejura Sekyedumase are the handy works of the NDC of which I am a major player. I have been a Municipal Chief Executive before, I extended electricity to about 54 communities. Aside from that, we have built a number of schools in the constituency. There is a community library that has been abandoned but the concerned youth took it up and I went to provide them with 50 pieces of roofing sheets. This constituency has been an NDC constituency and the year he won, there was some feud that’s how come he got elected as an MP. The conditions that existed in 2012 are no longer there and I want to tell Salisu Bamba that it is an NDC constituency and it’s not going back”.
Some constituents who spoke to Citi News expressed mixed reactions about the performance of the two candidates and their chances in the polls.
“Bawa did really well when it came to development during his time as the MCE and now he is the MP. As an MP, since his government is not in power, he has not been able to do much here. With Bamba, when he was the MP, he did really well in this area but he has not done much in his capacity as the MCE,” a resident, Abdul Aziz Adam stated.
“We have been voting over the years but we haven’t seen anything good come out of it. We have decided not to vote again. They have not fulfilled their promises. They tend to say different things when they assume office so, we have decided not to vote,” a resident, Aliyu Abdullah indicated.