Siblings At War Over Parliamentary Seat

The choice of Parliamentary Candidates for the two principal parties, the NDC and NPP, in the Amenfi West Constituency in the Western Region, has fallen on a brother and sister of the same mother.

While Mrs. Agnes Sonful (52), a teacher at Akrokeri Training College, is billed for NPP; her uterine brother, Gerald Danquah (37), a product of University of Cape Coast, is standing for the NDC.

The situation has set tongues waging with some people challenging the raison d'?tre of the two parties choosing candidates from the same Aduana family "as if other families in the constituency lacked credible citizens to fulfil the political aspirations of the electoral area."

Ironically both chairmen of the parties are also from the same Aduana family. Kofi Sekyi, the chairman of NPP, is an elder of the family and an uncle of the two candidates; while the Regional Vice Chairman of the NDC, George Dadzie, who is also an executive member of the constituency is an influential man in the family.

Gerald Danquah was elected unopposed for the NDC; and Mrs. Sonful on the other hand, had to go through primaries with Mr. Kwabena Essem, a former NPP Press Secretary, but won over 99 per cent of the total votes cast. Some elders of the family have, however, called for greater discipline and tolerance on their campaign platforms in order not to create disunity in the family.

In the 2002 district assembly elections, two members of the family contested in the same electoral area with the female, Elizabeth Buah, defeating her brother, Adjei Buah.

The situation brought about divisions among members, which are yet to be fully resolved. In an interview with Mr. Sekyi, it came to light that the issue is purely political and not a family affair, and that the choice of the two candidates would not affect their campaign strategies.

"You know Mrs. Sonful is older than Gerald Danquah. She is going to beat him like her junior brother," he stressed.

The NPP chairman said that even though the constituency seat has been known to be an NDC stronghold, this time around things would be different.

He recalled that in the 1992 general elections, which the other parties boycotted, the NDC won the seat overwhelmingly; but in the 1996 election when the NDC won it again, the difference was about 7,000 votes.

According to the NPP chairman, in the 2000 election the difference dropped to 1,300 while during the second round of the presidential election the NPP beat NDC with over 700 votes.

"This, coupled with the development projects being undertaken by the District Assembly and the tarring of Manso-Asankragwa road, meant there was no way the NDC could retain the seat," he said.

He praised the former MP, Mr. Kofi Asante, for the good work he did as an MP and hoped that Mrs. Sonful when elected would continue from where Asante left.

The NDC's Western Regional Vice-Chairman, George Dadzie, who is a senior brother of both candidates, had no comment to make since, according to him, he was in Accra and did not know what was happening on the ground in the constituency.

He said he could only talk to the press after he had consulted other executive members of the constituency.

However, there are speculations in the constituency that the mother of the two candidates, Mrs. Gyama Danquah, is a disturbed mother, agonising on whether to ask one of her children to step down for the other or allow the two to contest.

According to The Heritage source close to the mother, she however, sees the situation as an honour for the two candidates since they both come from her womb.

The Amenfi West constituency became vacant following the resignation of the Member of Parliament for the area, Mr. Abraham Kofi Asante, on Wednesday April 26, 2003.