For the first time since the Rawlings era, the National Democratic Congress (NDC) has garnered more than 30 per cent of valid votes cast in the Ashanti Region, a feat that has been contributed to the party’s landslide victory in the 2024 election.
The late Former President John Jerry Rawlings was the only NDC presidential candidate who had secured more than 30 per cent of votes in the Ashanti Region in the history of the party.
In 1992 and 1996, the NDC led by President Rawlings secured 32.9 and 32.8 per cent respectively as it cruised to victory in those elections decisively.
Since then, the party had struggled to replicate that performance after the exit of their charismatic leader with their best performance in the region being 28.4 per cent achieved in 2012.
The party has however made massive inroads in the region this year after polling 697,076 votes representing 33 per cent of the 2,106,108 valid votes cast contributing to an emphatic victory for the umbrella family.
It has also won four more seats including Ahafo Ano South East, Obuasi East, Akrofuom and Adansi Asokwa. The party is also claiming two more seats yet to be declared by the Electoral Commission (EC) due to the destruction of pink sheets following clashes between the opposing supporters who believe they won the election.
The Ashanti Region which is traditionally a stronghold of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) has kept faith with the party over the years, playing significant role in its electoral fortunes.
It was therefore the expectation of many election watchers that the Region would play a crucial role in the NPP’s quest to break the eight- year cycle of governance by the two leading parties ahead of the election.
But this year’s results from the region have been rather disappointing, diminishing any chance of the party sealing a historic victory as it sought to achieve.
For the first time in 28 years, the NDC has won constituencies it has never won in the region, summing up the poor performance of the ruling party in its most reliable stronghold.
Since the NPP started competing in parliamentary elections in 1996 under the Fourth Republic it had limited the NDC to only three seats in the region over the years – Asawase, Ejura, and New Edubiase.
The creation of the Sekyere Afram Plains Constituency in 2012 however increased the NDC’s parliamentary seats to four and had remained so until this year’s election. The NPP even snatched the New Edubiase and Ejura seats from the NDC in 2016 but they both returned to the fold of the NDC in 2020.
As results from polling stations across the constituencies in the region started trickling in, it became clear the NPP was on its way to opposition because its previous victories largely depended on the results in the Ashanti Region.
Also compounding the woes of the party was the low turnout in the region which was 64.8 per cent, far below the 82.9 per cent recorded in 2020.
Source: www.kumasimail.com
