The Ashanti Region has become the battleground for today’s elections, which will elect a new President and Members of Parliament for Ghana.
Currently, the two major political parties, the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the New Patriotic Party (NPP), are leaving no stone unturned in the region regarding vigilance, following vigorous campaigns in the area.
Politically, the Ashanti Region is the major stronghold of the ruling NPP, which currently has total control of 43 out of the 47 parliamentary seats in the region. In this election, the governing NPP is targeting 80-85% of the votes from the region, while the major opposition NDC is aiming for 30-35%.
So far, 3,019,178 registered voters have been captured in the Electoral Commission’s voter register to participate in the elections in the Ashanti Region. First-time voters consist of 465,224, with the elections taking place across 7,100 polling stations in the region’s 47 constituencies.
In the Ashanti Region alone, 120 parliamentary candidates have been cleared by the Electoral Commission to contest the polls. In the last general election, the NPP, led by then-candidate President Nana Akufo-Addo, won the Ashanti Region with 1,795,824 votes out of the total 2,466,856.
The major opposition party’s candidate, John Dramani Mahama, secured 653,149 votes—figures that political analysts described as impressive given the NPP’s dominance in the region.
In this election, the opposition leader, former President John Mahama, is tipped by all credible polls conducted by independent researchers to win. However, government internal polls suggest that the election may go into a runoff.
Meanwhile, the NDC is encouraging its supporters to remain vigilant at polling stations after casting their ballots to prevent what they describe as institutional rigging of the election.
In the last general elections in 2020, eight people were killed by unknown soldiers in Techiman, in the Bono East Region of Ghana. To avoid a repeat of such incidents, the Inspector General of Police, Dr. Akufo Dampare, has set up a special election task force to manage election security.
Source: www.kumasimail.com
