By-Election in Nima?

...As Another NDC MP is Said to Be On Verge of Resigning His Seat

It started as a local gossip but now the talk about the East Ayawaso Constituency hosting the next by-election after the yet- to-be held one in Amenfi West has assumed currency and confidence that are difficult to dispel.

This is not an Electoral Commission announcement but some residents of Nima and Maamobi, segments of the constituency interviewed by ADM say they are confident that their MP, Alhaji (Dr) Mustapha Ahmed (NDC) would deliver his resignation letter to the Speaker of Parliament before the end of the year and have therefore started bracing themselves for an inevitable by-election. One Alhaji Bature, an opinion leader, gave the hint about this development in an earlier interview when he spoke to the ADM exclusively on Nima politics.

Dr. Mustapha Ahmed's imminent resignation from the NDC comes closely on the heels of the recent very public riposte by the National Chairman of the party against what he implied as undemocratic tendencies by party founder Mr. Jerry John Rawlings and also the victimization of pro-Botchwey MPs, of which Dr. Mustapha is regarded as one of the staunchest.

With the biting Obed attack on Rawlings, the myth surrounding him has been broken and the NDC political landscape is going to witness interesting and epoch-making developments.

Dr. Obed Asamoah himself a Kwesi Botchwey sympathizer, it has been learnt is reeling from the pressure of complaints of victimization being reported to him by some NDC MPs who did not want Prof. Atta Mills as the flag bearer of the party.

Obed Asamoah's reactions have gone to widen the gulf between him and Rawlings and Obed's tacit support for Kofi Asante's resignation from parliament is seen as giving the nod to other disenchanted members to advise themselves.

Some NDC stalwarts have said they are not surprised by the recent electoral triumphs of the NPP in five by-elections and that with the way things are going and Mills is going, the 2004 elections would elude them just as Election 2000 did.

It would be recalled that during the campaign prior to the party's congress, Dr. Kwesi Botchwey said that if Mills could not beat Kufuor in the last elections there was no way that he could do so in the forthcoming one. Pro-Botchwey supporters regard the recent electoral setbacks as a vindication of their mentor's position and a sign of what is in store for Rawlings' prot?g?.

The politically inclined Maamobi residents display their sense of humour when they refer to the imminent resignation of their MP as the NDC voting against itself even before ballots open in December 2004.

The party is a pale shadow of itself in the area such that ward meetings are seldom held. The NPP on the other hand is waxing stronger by the day. A yet to be outdoored association of NPP supporters, WADATA, the brainchild of one Alhaji Awwal has succeeded in attracting the disgruntled NDC supporters who troop to their weekly meetings religiously. Today the NPP WADATA has both adult, youth and women wings and the number is growing by the day. Such a development would have been unheard of in the heady days of the NDC regime. The roundabout after the Nima Police Station now hosts signboards of the NPP, NDC and CPP; before the NPP came to power any signboard other than the NDC did not last overnight as it would have been destroyed.

The East Ayawaso constituency used to be a stronghold of the NDC; not so now as the political equation is fast changing, and should a by-election indeed come, the results of Election 2000 would be reversed.

Dr. Mustapha Ahmed beat the NPP's Kofi Wayo marginally in Election 2000.

He is a dentist in private practice and also carries the military title of Major after having served in the Ghana Armed Forces medical system. He is reputed to be financially independent with lucrative business concerns.

The building housing his dental surgery on the Nima Highway also served as the campaign directorate of Dr. Botchwey's bid to become NDC Presidential Candidate for Election 2004.