Joe Ghartey
The incumbent Member of Parliament (MP) for the Essikadu Ketan Constituency in the Western Region, Joe Ghartey, has defeated his main contender, Dr. Grace Ayensu Danquah of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), in last Monday’s parliamentary election to maintain his seat for the fourth time.
Even though the MP elect, who doubles as the Minister for Railway Development, initially saw the contest to be an easy one, the votes garnered on the Election Day proved otherwise.
When the results started trickling in, it proved that Dr. Danquah was not an easy push over.
NDC supporters in the constituency at a point thought that their candidate had won when the results from some of the polling centres in the early hours of the counting favoured their candidate.
However, the certified results by the Electoral Commission (EC) indicated that the incumbent NPP MP had 26,701 to beat the NDC candidate who polled 24,527 votes.
Tarkwa Nsuaem
Contrary to assertions by the NDC that the incumbent MP for Tarkwa-Nsuaem, George Mireku Duker, had lost his seat in Monday’s parliamentary elections, the legislator would rather win the seat with a slim margin.
As at the time of filing this report, provisional results in the constituency indicated that the incumbent MP had 31,913 votes as against 31,855 votes garnered by the NDC candidate, John Justice Abban.
The difference between the votes polled by the incumbent and his main contender was small probably because of a former NPP activist who contested as an independent candidate.
The independent candidate, Joy Joycelyn Andoh’s, was disqualified by the party to contest the area’s primaries prior to the general elections.
Ms. Andoh polled a total of 28,846 votes.
Typically, the Tarkwa Nsuaem Constituency has been a stronghold of the NPP since its creation.
In the Kwesimintsim Constituency, the NPP candidate, Dr. Prince Armah, the Executive Secretary of the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NaCCA), won the seat with 24,785 while his close contender, Philip Fiifi Buckman, of the NDC secured 13,409 votes.
From Emmanuel Opoku, Takoradi