The race to succeed the late National Democratic Congress (NDC) Member of Parliament for Ayawaso East, Mahama Naser Toure, has heated up as the party opens nominations on Saturday, January 24, 2026, for prospective aspirants to file to contest the party's parliamentary primary scheduled for Saturday, February 7, 2026.

Before the party could open nominations, some key personalities' names had popped up as possible contenders to slug it out for the party’s ticket in the primary.

Possible aspirants

They are Baba Jamal Mohammed Ahmed and Dr Yakubu Azindow, both of whom contested the late MP in the last NDC parliamentary primary.

Apart from these individuals, some supporters of the NDC in the constituency are pushing for the widow of the late MP, Hajia Amina Adam, to succeed her husband.

Baba Jamal declared his intentions to contest the by-election just days after the Electoral Commission (EC) scheduled the Ayawaso East Constituency parliamentary by-election for Tuesday, March 3, 2026.

Baba Jamal, a legal practitioner and Ghana’s Ambassador to Nigeria, is framing his candidacy as a homecoming. Despite being famously associated with the Akwatia constituency in the Eastern Region, he said he was born and raised in Nima, the heart of the Ayawaso East Constituency.

“It is true, by God’s grace, I will contest in the Ayawaso East constituency by-election. I see it as a call to come and serve the good people of Ayawaso East,” Baba Jamal said in a recent radio interview.

But before his bid becomes a reality, he has to go through his party’s nomination process and contest the primary to get the nod to be the governing party’s candidate for the by-election.

The widow of the late MP, Hajia Amina Adam, whom some supporters of the party are rooting for to succeed her husband, is yet to declare her intentions, with just a day to the party’s opening of nominations.

Others who have already declared their intention ahead of the party’s primary include Yahaya Alhassan, the National Chairman of the Zongo Political Groupings.

Background

The Ayawaso East Constituency has been a stronghold of the governing NDC since the inception of the Fourth Republic that has delivered electoral victories in both the presidential and parliamentary elections for the NDC.

In the last parliamentary elections in 2024, the late NDC MP, Naser Toure, won with 22, 139 votes representing 70.85 per cent, while his sole contender, Zak Rahman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), obtained 9,110 votes representing 29.15 per cent out of the total votes of 31, 249.

The NPP has declared its intention of contesting the Ayawaso East constituency by-election, but the party is yet to announce whether it will hold a primary to elect a candidate or maintain its 2024 parliamentary candidate, Zak Rahman.

The Liberal Party of Ghana has also expressed its intentions of putting up a candidate in the by-election.