The Assin North by-election result, according to Dr. Kojo Pumpuni Asante, Director of Programmes and Policy Engagement at the Centre for Democratic Development-Ghana (CDD-Ghana), has increased confidence in the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) ahead of the 2024 general election.
Dr. Asante asserted on JoyTV on Saturday that the party’s victory gives them a sense of competition going into the general elections.
He asserts that the current administration must change its approach and draw lessons from the by-election’smistakes.
“I think we are a long way from December 07, 2024. So, there are still many things to resolve. The NPP’s internal party primaries have to be resolved to know who’s their candidate. That would help assess the strength of the candidates going into the election.
“For me, this Assin North election does give the NDC some more confidence about its sense of competitiveness going into the 2024 election,”
He further argued that undercover investigations must be carried out to identify offenders in order to prevent incidents of vote-buying during the heat of an election.
Charles Opoku, a candidate for the New Patriotic Party, finished second with 12,630 votes, or 42.15 percent, to James Gyakye Quayson’s 17,245 votes, or 57.56 percent of the valid votes cast.
Sefenu Bernice Enyonam, a candidate for the Liberal Party of Ghana (LPG), received 87 votes, or 0.29 percent.
In a related news, Joseph Bediako, the Movement for Truth and Accountability’s convener, has threatened to leave the country if the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) wins 47% of the vote in the 2024 elections.
He claims that the Ghanaian people have already rejected the NPP and that this rejection will be evident in the election results in 2024.
According to InsightNewgh.com-monitored Accra-based Hot FM’s Joseph Bediako, he predicted that the NPP would cry after the Assin North election, and the people did indeed show the NPP where the real power is.