Builsa North seat: Agalga to contest with Abakisi

Mr James Agalga, the National Democratic Congress (NDC) Parliamentary Aspirant will contest Mr James Maurice Abakisi, the New Patriotic Party's (NPP) Aspirant for the Builsa North Constituency seat in the December 7, 2020, Parliamentary election.

Traditionally, the Builsa North Constituency had over the years voted in favour of the NDC Party.

The NDC won the seat in 1992, 1996, 2008, 2012, and 2016, except for 2004 when Madam Agnes Asangalisa Chigabatia made political history when she won the seat for the NPP in 2004 with 6,160 votes, representing 33.70 per cent of total votes cast.

She beat her close contender, Mr Timothy Ataboadey Awontiirim of the NDC who polled 6,147 votes, representing 33.60 per cent.

The NDC took back the seat in the 2008 Parliamentary elections.

Mr Agalga, the incumbent Member of Parliament for the area, won the seat in the 2016 election with 13, 886 votes, representing 61.21 per cent while Mr Thomas Kofi Alonsi of the NPP polled 8, 652 votes representing 38.14 percent.

The Conversion People’s Party, at that time, polled 147 representing 0.65 per cent.

Generally, political activities in the constituency are slow, even though posters of the two main contestants are found on every available space, especially on trees and walls.

Huge billboards of the Aspirants are also positioned at vantage points across the Constituency to catch the attention of the electorates.

Both aspirants, who appealed for votes from their constituents in separate interviews with the Ghana News Agency (GNA), successfully filed their nomination forms at the Builsa North District Office of the Electoral Commission to contest the seat.

The GNA in the District observed that candidates had resorted to door-to-door campaign to canvass for votes, devoid of mass gatherings, probably owing to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Mr Abakisi who is contesting the seat for the first time is a Teacher and the Zonal Manager of the National Communications Authority (NCA) for the Upper East and West Regions.

In a recent interview with the GNA, the Aspirant, who is a former Director of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) in the then Builsa District indicated that “I participated in implementing the Health Insurance across the two Districts of the Builsa land.”

He emphasized that “I have the experience and I am capable of doing more when given the opportunity to lead the Constituency in Parliament.”

Mr Agalga in a separate interview said his tenure as MP for the area had brought transformation to the people in the Constituency, adding that “The people of Builsa North deserve quality and better representation in Parliament.”

The former Deputy Minister for the Interior, who is also a legal practitioner, said the NDC Party when voted back into government, would ensure that all stalled projects initiated and started under the NDC would continue.