The National Democratic Congress (NDC) fought a spirited fight in the just-ended 2020 general election in the Bono Region and increased its seats from one to six during the exercise.

In the process, the party was able to snatch the Wenchi seat, considered to be a “sacred” area for the Danquah-Busia-Dombo tradition because Wenchi is the birthplace of the Prime Minister of the Second Republic, Professor Kofi Abrefa Busia.

The New Patriotic Party (NPP) has continued to win elections during the Fourth Republic beside the 1992 election which it boycotted because of the rejection of results of the presidential election held earlier.

Upset

The NDC, thus caused an upset when its candidate, Seidu Haruna, obtained 26,068 to defeat NPP’s stalwart, Professor George Yaw Gyan-Baffuor, who had 23,102.

Currently, the NPP holds 11 out of the 12 seats in the Bono Region but the party will not enjoy this dominance in the Eighth Parliament since both the NPP and the NDC will have six seats each in the region.

Incumbent NDC MP for Banda, Ahmed Ibrahim retained his seat when he garnered 8,276 votes to beat his NPP challenger, Joe Danquah who had 8,195 votes during the election, while former NDC MP for Dormaa West, Vincent Oppong-Asamoah, made a comeback with 11,480 to beat incumbent NPP MP, Ali Halidu Maiga, who polled 9,874 votes.

In the Tain Constituency, incumbent NPP MP, Gabriel Osei, lost the seat he won in 2016 when he obtained 18,346 as against NDC’s Sulemana Adama who polled 20,374 to win the seat back for his party.

The Deputy Bono Regional Minister, Mr Siaka Steven, was also not spared as he lost his Jaman North seat with 18,206 as against the NDC’s candidate Frederick Yaw Ahenkwah who won with 22,375 votes while the Deputy Minister of Aviation, Yaw Afful, also lost his seat with 22,519 as against 24,422 obtained by NDC’s William Okofo-Darteh.

Retention

The Minister of Health, Mr Kwaku Agyeman-Manu, the Minister of Employment and Labour Relations, Mr Ignatius Baffuor-Awuah, as well as the Majority Chief Whip, Kwasi Ameyaw-Cheremeh, all retained their Dormaa Central, Sunyani West and Sunyani East seats respectively.

NPP’s new entrant, Paul Apraku Twum-Barimah retained the Dormaa East seat when he polled 16,760 votes to beat his NPP challenger, Rachel Owusuah, who had 11,484 votes.

The Deputy Minister of Railways, Kwaku Agyenim-Boateng, retained his Berekum West seat with 11,246 votes as against 10,299 polled by the NDC’s Dickson Kyereh-Duah while in the Berekum East, new NPP entrant, Nelson Kyeremeh, retained the seat for his party with 27,731 votes while the NDC’s candidate, Simon Ampaabeng Kyeremeh obtained 17,305.