Koforidua, Dec. 5, GNA - Mrs Felicia Lamptey, a 50-year-old caterer, was on Tuesday elected the Assembly Member for the Nsukwao-Abotanso Electoral Area in the New Juaben Municipality of the Eastern Region. She polled 429 votes to defeat her main challenger, Dangyima Mohammed, who polled 356 votes with Mr Emmanuel Wahab, obtaining 163 votes and Mr Pius Pio, another contestant, obtaining 36 votes.

Speaking to the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in an interview in Koforidua on Wednesday, Mrs Lamptey said her main priority was to tackle environmental and sanitation problems confronting the people in the community. She said women empowerment would be one of her main concerns and that she would arrange for small loans from the financial institutions to enable them to expand their businesses.

Mrs Lamptey said education of the youth would not be left out as there were a lot of young people in the community who due to financial difficulties did not attend school or have stopped schooling. She said she would support those people through scholarships and other assistance to enable them to have better education. At Nsukwao Electoral Area, a 39-year-old Accounts Officer, Mr Raphael Obeng Manu, emerged winner in a highly competitive election contested by three people.

He polled 601 votes to defeat his main challenger, Mr Kwaku Afram, who polled 475 votes and the third candidate, George Boateng, got 45 votes. At the Central Market Electoral Area, a 35-year-old mobile phone seller, Mr William Opoku, defeated the incumbent assembly member, Mr Kwaku Asamoah, who was tipped by majority of the people to win the election. Mr Opoku obtained 316 votes as against 283 for Mr Asamoah with Mr Gordon Minto, a newspaper vendor, obtaining 25 votes. All the elected assembly members promised to work with the people to ensure speedy development in their respective areas.