A former Member of Parliament (MP) for Ayensuano Constituency, Samuel Ayeh-Paye, has indicated that the former parliamentary candidate of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) for Assin North, Abena Durowaa Mensah, should have been the main contender in the by-election for James Gyakye Quayson and not Charles Opoku.

He made these comments while speaking on Accra-based UTV.

According to him, the former MP for the constituency, Abena Durowaa in the 2016 election performed better than the NDC’s Gyakye Quayson in this by-election.

To him, if she was the candidate of choice for the NPP in the just-ended by-election, she would have won the seat for the party.

“If the NPP will listen to me they should bring back Abena Durowaa Mensah. For her, she is an indigen of the constituency, her father is one of the leaders in the constituency. She lost the 2020 election with just about 2000 votes. Gyakye Quayson on spending two years in parliament, the constituents have seen that Abena was good,” he said.

The MP further explained that NPP supporters in the Assin constituency picked an early signal that Abena had been sidelined by the leaders of the party to choose Charles Opoku.

“There is this perception, and I do not know how true it is, but we have not been able to control that perception in Assin North. The narration that went on in the constituency is that Abena Durowaa was called from the presidency to step down for Charles Opoku. The constituents said they were not going to allow that to happen. She was called for the second time before she gave in to step down.

“I don’t believe that when Abena returned to the constituency, she met with the supporters to explain things to them that she was asked to step down. Because of this, she didn’t get maximum control over the supporters.

“One radio presenter I was listening to, after getting the results, compared it to Gyakye Quayson’s vote in the by-election. Even in the centres where Charles Opoku won, Abena’s votes were higher than his. Wherever the NDC won, Abena performed better when she contested.

The NPP’s choice of candidate in the by-election, Charles Opoku lost the election to NDC’s James Gyakye Quayson.

Opoku polled 12,630 votes representing 42.15 per cent while Quayson 17,245 votes representing 57.56 per cent of the valid votes cast.

The Liberal Party of Ghana (LPG) who presented the only candidate in the by-election, Sefenu Bernice Enyonam, got 87 votes representing 0.29 per cent.

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NW/OGB