The Opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) has opted from contesting in the upcoming by-election in the Ejisu Constituency, scheduled for 30th April 2024.
It’s obvious that the NDC will lose the Parliamentary seat which is in the NPP’s World Bank, hence, in a smart move decided to stay out.
The NDC claims they are focusing more on the general elections scheduled for December.
The Ashanti Regional Organiser of the NDC, Ishmael Alhassan, explained that the party has opted out of the race citing concerns about the wastage of resources
This decision comes after the Member of Parliament for the area, John Ampontuah Kumah of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP), passed away on March 7, 2024, following a brief illness.
He claimd “I am speaking on authority that the NDC will not contest this by-election. We don’t want to benefit from [John Kumah’s] death. Looking at the time frame if the Electoral Commission does not conduct the election before May, any political party who contests this election is just causing financial loss to the party”.
“We are winning the election for His Excellency John Mahama so any preparation that we have is geared towards the December election and that is our focus”, he added.
The NPP is currently preparing to select a new candidate for the by-election which will be supervised by the Electoral Commission (EC) on 14th April, 2024.
Meanwhile, the Electoral Commission has announced that the by-election for the Ejisu constituency will take place on April 30, 2024.
So far with NPP, nine aspirants have been cleared to contest the party’s Parliamentary primary coming Saturday.
-BY Daniel Bampoe