In his victory message, M Gyapong called on all party members to give him the maximum support to bring back Mr Mahama to the presidency.

“John Mahama will return to the presidency in 2020. All we need is to come together as one family to make this possible”, he said while assuring the party supporters that he would work with everybody to achieve victory.

Declaration

This declaration made Mr Kofi Adams, who was at the congress to supervise the process, excited and moved him to remark: “Take note, chairman said we are bringing John Mahama to the presidency”, a statement that received an applause and cheers from the supporters who had stayed through the election till about 1 a.m. on Sunday.

The chairman’s position was keenly contested between the incumbent, Mr Gyapong, and the former Minister of Transport, Ms Dzifa Attivor, with the former emerging victorious after polling 491 votes against Ms Attivor’s 374 votes to retain his position.

Keen contest

It was a contest which delegates could not easily point to the winner.

While Mr Gyapong’s camp focused on the infamous bus branding issue during Ms Attivor’s tenure as transport minister to campaign against her, her camp also dwelt on her opponent’s inability to secure a sound victory for the party in the region due to apathy from Mr Gyapong’s cohorts hijacking of the party.

Madam Attivor saw the bus branding issue as no issue because she had not been implicated. She had predicted that she would win the contest by 65 per cent, which gave her supporters hope.

The euphoria at the Ho Technical University auditorium when the whole voting process started made one feel that Ms Attivor was in to dislodge the incumbent.

The confidence level continued throughout the process and even heightened when some contestants (said to be in Ms Attivor’s camp) started emerging winners against that of Mr Gyapong, causing some uneasiness among supporters of the incumbent chairman.

The Neho Chants

Chants of "Neho," meaning "uproot," characterised the voting process and the counting period to give the impression that Ms Attivor was to carry the day, further deepening the confusion in the minds of supporters of Mr Gyapong.

It, therefore, came as a big surprise when Mr Gyapong won the election with over 100 votes margin.

Other positions

A total of 54 persons contested the 13 available positions. The congress saw the election of both old and new executive as the operation uproot all incumbents failed to materialise.

The incumbent regional secretary, Mr Simon Amegashie-Viglo, lost his position to Mr James Gunu after he polled 494 votes as against the 82 votes of Mr Viglo.

The Hohoe agent of the Graphic Communications Group Limited, Mr Siki Abibu, defeated his opponent, George Darkey, by a slim margin of seven to become the regional organiser.

Two other positions were declared unopposed as it was only an industrialist, Mr Daniel Agboka-Dzegede, who filed for the post of treasurer while the incumbent for the post of regional communications officer, Mr Kafui Agbleze, had no contender.

New executive

Other elected executive are Vice Chairmen, Henry Ametepe; Deputy Secretary, Maxwell Owusu-Siaw; Deputy Organiser, Ege Bright Korshie; Treasurer, Chester Sena Ati; Deputy Treasurer, Daniel Dzegede; Deputy Communications Officer, Evelyn Gaglozu; Women’s Organiser, Kugbeadzor Bright Delali (Del-Bright); Deputy organiser, Fafa Agbai among others.