The Electoral Commission (EC) has set April 30 as the date for the EJisu Constituency by-election. John Kumah died while in office. According to the 1992 Constitution, a by-election must be held to elect a replacement to serve the remaining term of the deceased MP.
Ejisu Constituency is an NPP stronghold with the party winning every other parliamentary contest there since 1996. The NDC’s only victory in the constituency was in 1992. So far, the NPP has begun the process of selecting a candidate to represent the party in the by-election.
Nine persons have been cleared to contest the party’s primaries They include Kwabena Boateng, Dr. Evans Duah, Klinsman Karikari Mensah, Helena Mensah and Jacqueline Abena Pokua Amoah-Boaitey. The rest are Portia Baffoe Abronye, Kwesi Nyantakyi, Aaron Prince Duah and Yaa Akyawmaa Aboagye.
Ghana have already had two by-elections since the last presidential and parliamentary elections. The first was at Kumawu where 54-year-old Philip Basoah passed on while in office. Ernest Yaw Anim of the NPP won in an easy victory with 15,264 votes to beat the NDC’s Kwasi Amankwaa, and two Independent candidates, both of whom appeared as Kwaku Duah on the ballot paper.
Assin North was the next destination but unlike in the previous, the NDC MP Gyakye Quayson was asked to vacate his seat a Cape Coast High Court and later confirmed by the Supreme Court. Gyakye Quayson was the NDC’s candidate in the by-election. He won with 17,245 votes while the New Patriotic Party’s Charles Opoku polled 12,630 votes to place second. Assin North is a key swing constituency.
Ejisu as a stronghold for the NPP is a predictably an easy win for the party even if other candidates make gains. The NDC, however, has said it will not present a candidate in the by-election.