Kumasi, Oct. 08, GNA – Ejura-Sekyeredumasi, is one of the three “safe” constituencies of the NDC in the Ashanti Region, which is considered as the largest stronghold of the governing NPP.
The Constituency, together with Asawase and Sekyere Afram Plains, are the only three being occupied by the NDC, out of the 47 constituencies in the Ashanti Region.
Ejura-Sekyeredumasi had remained a formidable seat for the NDC since 1992, and had been represented in Parliament by its candidates all these years, except 2012 elections which was won by the NPP.
Mr Peter Boakye Ansah, was the first NDC MP, who occupied the seat from 1992-1994.
He was followed by Mr Sampson Attakora, also an NDC candidate in the 2000 elections.
Alhaji Issifu Pangabu Mohammed, another NDC candidate, won the 2004 elections and continued to stay in Parliament until 2012, when he lost the seat to Alhaji Mohammed Salisu Bamba, the NPP candidate, who served for only one term in Parliament.
The seat was once again reclaimed by the NDC candidate Alhaji Bawah Braimah Mohammed in the 2016 elections and had since occupied the seat in the name of NDC.
He is now in a severe contest with the man he snatched the seat from in 2016.
The most interesting part in the Ejura-Sekyeredumasi contest is that the two leading candidates in the battle for the seat had been MPs before.
They had also been Municipal Chief Executives for the Ejura-Sekyeredumasi Municipality.
While Alhaji Braimah was the MCE in 2012, Alhaji Bamba was the MP and while Alhaji Braimah is the incumbent MP for the area, Alhaji Bamba is also the incumbent Municipal Chief Executive.
The battle is now straight and the focus is on performance, since all of them had occupied the highest political office in the area.
In the 2016 elections, the incumbent MP, Alhaji Braimah, polled 23, 277 votes, representing 50 percent of the total votes cast, to beat Alhaji Bamba, who had 21,795 votes, representing 47 percent.
This means the NDC candidate snatched the seat with just three percentage points.
The NPP in the Ashanti Region, led by its chairman, Bernard Antwi Boasiako, popularly known as Chairman Wontumi, has declared a “war” to take all the 47 seats in the Region for the NPP.
This is what has now become the agenda 47/47 campaign, which is vigorously going on in these “orphan” Constituencies in the Region.
The question now is, with the massive infrastructural projects such as construction of roads, building of schools, the planting for food and jobs, which had been a major game changer in the area, the free senior high school policy, among others, and the avowed determination of Chairman Wontumi, to take the seat, will Alhaji Braimah and the NDC be able to survive and retain the seat in the December 07, elections?
The people in the area would be able to answer the question in the evening of December 07, 2020.
GNA