A leading member of the opposition National Democratic Congress in the Ashanti Region, Joshua Fugah, has issued a stern warning to the New Patriotic Party ahead of the upcoming parliamentary by-election in the Assin North Constituency.
According to Fugah, with the Assin North vote, the NDC will not give room for any acts of vote buying, as witnessed in the recent by-election in the Kumawu Constituency.
“What we want to tell the NPP is that what they did in Kumawu will not be allowed to repeat itself in Assin North. Our regional chairman for the Central Region has held a press conference and informed the NPP that the things they did in Kumawu will not be allowed to happen again.
“Some of these include the wanton sharing of money in broad daylight. Every V8 that went into the town was filled with cash. But amidst all that, the people of Kumawu showed the NPP that they cannot be bought with money. However, there are some people whose minds can change if you give them money. Considering the current economic hardship, a hundred or two hundred cedis can change someone’s mind, and those are the things we will not allow to happen in Assin North,” he stated during a peace discussion on Peace FM.
The NPP emerged victorious in a by-election held for the Kumawu Constituency following the demise of the Member of Parliament for the area, Philip Basoah.
Despite suffering defeat, the NDC maintains that it performed well in the election held in the NPP’s stronghold but argues that the election was marred by vote buying on the part of the NPP.
The Electoral Commission has scheduled a by-election for the Assin North Constituency after the Supreme Court ruled that the election of James Gyakye Quayson as MP for the area in the 2020 election was unconstitutional, null, and void.
According to the court, Gyakye Quayson, at the time of filing his nomination to contest in 2020, had not renounced his Canadian citizenship.
Meanwhile, the NDC, ahead of the June 27, 2023, by-election, has indicated that it will maintain Gyakye Quayson as its candidate despite an ongoing criminal case against him.
Source: ghanaweb.com
