Samuel Ayeh-Paye, the former Member of Parliament for Ayensuano, has refuted allegations that the New Patriotic Party (NPP) struggled to retain the Ejisu seat in the recent by-election.
The by-election was necessitated by the passing of the Member of Parliament and Deputy Finance Minister, Dr. John Ampontuah Kumah, on March 7, 2024.
NPP’s Lawyer Kwabena Boateng, was declared the winner, garnering 27,782 votes, which equates to 55.8% of the total votes cast. His main rival, Mr. Kwabena Owusu Aduomi, an Independent Candidate, secured 21,534 votes, representing 43.3% of the total votes, on Tuesday, April 30.
Mr. Aduomi left the party and ran as an Independent Candidate, alleging discrepancies with the delegates’ album at the time.
Several pollsters and political observers have suggested that the NPP had a hard time achieving victory in its stronghold during the by-election.
In an interview with Selorm Adonoo on The Big Issue on Citi TV, Mr Ayeh-Paye said, “For me, I don’t see it [by-election] as a struggle, and I didn’t see any struggle, if there was any struggle, it was a struggle between NPP and NPP. If you put the two votes together, Ing. Aduomi is NPP, and Lawyer Boateng is also NPP.
“Putting it together, one may say the NPP had about 99.1% of the votes in Ejisu. I saw it as an internal election between NPP and NPP, two NPP members contesting.”
He mentioned that if Aduomi had won the by-election, he would have been seated near the majority in Parliament.
“The Aduomi I know would definitely go and sit with the NPP in parliament,” he said.
The former MP concurred with the decision made by the party’s National Chairman, Stephen Ntim, to reach out to Mr. Aduomi.
“Our National Chairman said he’s quickly going to get those in Aduomi’s camp back to NPP. That is where we have to look at, that is where we have to work together to ensure that apathy will not step in the 2024 December elections. So that we will have a lot of people coming out to vote. Aduomi will not come again,” he stated.
He dismissed suggestions that the NPP’s electoral prospects would have been diminished if the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) had participated in the race.
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