Kumawu by-election: NDC’s Kwasi Amankwah hits ground campaigning

The National Democratic Congress (NDC) appears to have taken an early start in the Kumawu Constituency as the party gears up for a by-election.

The Electoral Commission is to organize fresh elections in that constituency following the demise of its Member of Parliament Philip Atta Basoah.

Candidate for the NDC Kwasi Amankwah, known popularly in Kumawu as TOM C, declared that campaigns have begun in earnest after successfully sailing through vetting and endorsement. unopposed, to represent the party in the upcoming election.

“We are going for the by-election and campaigning has started from today. The people of Kumawu should expect a visionary leader who has Kumawu at heart,” he told Ultimate News in Kumasi.

He is promising to break the NPP’s jinx insisting the constituents are clamoring for change.

“We are coming with development and jobs. Kumawu is crying out for change and we are going to be the change that Kumawu is crying out for,” he promised.

Clad in Akwasi Amankwah branded t-shirts, youth of Kumawu turned up in their numbers to meet the NDC’s parliamentary candidate after going through endorsement.

The youth, most of whom confessed to being graduates insisted, Kwasi Amankwah and the NDC have demonstrated enough goodwill towards Kumawu in infrastructure and jobs.

“If there is anything that you can point to as government’s infrastructure in Kumawu, it is linked to the NDC. When you look around me, you will see youth who have their diplomas, first degrees and even masters degrees and all we are asking for is jobs,” Isaac Otoo Wilson noted.

He further charged his compatriots to lend their support to the candidate as proof of protecting the ancestral interest of Kumawu bequeathed to them by their forebears.

The aspirant Kwasi Amankwah expressed concern, the rich business and tourism potential of Kumawu has been obscured because of wrong leadership.

He told reporter Ivan Heathcote – Fumador, one of the main visions that we are pushing, is to make Kumawu a tourist hub in Ashanti Region just as Kwahu is in the Eastern Region.

He observed, “We have the landscape; the waterfalls; the history; it’s not too far from Kumasi and we have a vibrant youth community. All these are a good recipe for a good tourist destination.”

Kwasi Amankwah, who has significant business concerns in Kumawu, expressed his sympathies for the family of the departed Member of Parliament whom he described as a close relation.

Commiserating with the bereaved family, he offered to extend his best support to give the late MP a befitting and honorable farewell.

The 2020 elections saw the late MP Philip Basoah, poll 69% of the votes with the NDC’s candidate Samuel Esiama garnering 15% of votes cast.

Article 112 (5) of the 1992 constitution states that “whenever a vacancy occurs in Parliament, the Clerk to Parliament shall notify the Electoral Commission in writing within seven days after the vacancy occurred, and a by-election shall be held within thirty days after the vacancy occurred.”

The Speaker in a communication to the Electoral Commission on Friday, March 31, satisfied the first leg, directing the Electoral Commission to hold a by-election for a replacement of the late MP.