How NPP lost 8 seats in Central in 2008

The then opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) won nine parliamentary seats in the Central Region in the 2008 parliamentary elections.

The party, in addition to their original two seats, took eight from the then ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) and one, Komenda/Edina/Eguafo/Abirem (KEEA) from the Convention People’s Party (CPP).

Can NPP recover in the 2012 parliamentary elections? Page 55 of the new book by Ben Ephson on the 2008 elections and towards the 2012 elections states:

• Mafantseman West: - Then NDC’s Aquinas Wuansah caused an upset by beating the incumbent NPP MP, Stephen Asamoah-Boateng, by a margin of 3,176 votes. He had 25,412 votes (52.1%) as against Asamoah-Boateng’s 22,236 votes (45.6%). The NPP candidate’s personal appeal made him get 2,750 votes more than what Nana Akufo-Addo had.

• Gomoa West:- Given the performance of the NPP’s parliamentary candidate, Joe Hackman in the 2004 elections this was a seat analysts did not give the NDC any chance of winning in 2008. In 2004, there were no rejected votes in the parliamentary elections, won by Joe Hackman with more than 11,500 votes margin over the popular NDC candidate, Ms. Ama Benyiwa-Doe. In 2008, the NDC candidate, Francis Kojo Arhur unseated Mr. Hackman by a margin of 3,474 votes, with 1,108 rejected votes.

• Effutu: - In 2004, the NPP’s Samuel Owusu-Agyei defeated the then NDC incumbent, Mike Hammah, by 1,214 votes. In 2008, Hammah won the seat, beating Owusu-Agyei by 3,123 votes.

• Agona East: - This was one of the hotly contested parliamentary seats in the country in 2008. The incumbent NPP, John Agyabeng won by 34 votes over the NDC candidate, Theophilus Maranga. Mr. Agyabeng had 15,125 vote (49.6%) and Maranga – 15,091 (49.5%). In 2004, Agyabeng had it relatively easy, polling 18,030 votes (5%), 10,603 votes more than what the same Maranga, who contested as an independent had 7,427 votes (23.1%). The NDC candidate had 5,515 votes (17.1%).

•Askuma/Odoben/Brakwa: - The incumbent NPP MP, Paul Collins Appiah-Ofori, was bound to have a difficult time retaining his seat. In 2004, he won by a margin of 6,806 votes and in 2008, he again beat t he same NDC candidate, Mrs. Georgina Aboah, but this time, by a margin of only 371 votes. The margin was smaller because some members of the NPP in the constituency actually campaigned against him!

•Assin North:- The incumbent NPP MP, Kennedy Agyapong, won his seat again, by a margin of 5,347, down from his 2004 margin of victory of 10,289.

Heman Lower Denkyira: - This is a constituency the independent candidate, Bright Wireko-Brobby, did very well. He had 6,591 votes (32.9%) to place second, to the incumbent NPP MP, Benjamin Donkor, who polled 7,067 votes (35.3%), 476 votes more. The NDC candidate had 5,699 votes (28.5%). The independent candidate had 2,828 votes from the NPP and 2,421 from the NDC.