Assin North By-Election: What Mahama And Akufo-Addo Have Been Saying As They Storm Constituency To Campaign

• Both the opposition NDC and governing NPP are putting the final touches to their campaign to win the Assin North by-election scheduled for Tuesday, June 27, 2023
• Among other things, NDC flagbearer and former president John Dramani Mahama has promised to make the party's candidate James Quayson a minister if he gets the nod to become president in 2024
• Meanwhile, Nana Akufo-Addo has been warning voters against voting for a candidate who could soon be incarcerated because of his dual citizenship brouhaha

There is intense campaigning in the Assin North constituency in the Central Region of Ghana ahead of a crucial by-election that many pundits say is really between the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP).

To cap campaigning ahead of the by-elections on June 27, 2023, President Nana Akufo-Addo has led the governing NPP to hold a final rally in the party's bid to whip up support and improve the party's chances of winning the polls.

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But the NDC has been doing a similar thing. The party's flagbearer for the 2024 elections, John Dramani Mahama, has also led top party executives for a rally in the area to strengthen the party's chances of winning back the parliamentary seat the party lost after a Supreme Court ruling recently.

What Mahama and Akufo-Addo have been saying in Assin North

During a huge rally at the constituency, Mahama promised to appoint James Quayson as a minister if he is elected president again.

“He [Gyake Quayson] is humble, God-fearing, and respects everyone. If God helps me to be president, nothing will stop me from appointing him as a minister. Even as an opposition MP, look at what he has been able to do in terms of development from his own pockets. Just imagine what he would do if he becomes a minister,” Mahama said on Monday, June 26, 2023.

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He also told the huge crowd of voters at the rally that if the NPP tries to buy their votes with money and other items, they should take it because it is their money after all.

He also said in Twi that no spell or curse will work on them if they take the money and items and don't vote for the NPP candidate because they have done nothing wrong.

Akufo-Addo jabs Quayson over ongoing criminal trial

Akufo-Addo also told the voters on Monday that they must make their votes count by electing a candidate who will not be thrown in jail shortly after winning the election.

He made the comments in relation to an ongoing criminal trial of Gyakye Quayson for holding dual citizenship at the time he filed to contest the parliamentary seat.

The by-election was occasioned by a Supreme Court ruling that the election of James Quayson in 2020 was null and void because he held a Canadian citizen when he filed to contest the sea.

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According to Akufo-Addo NDC's Quayson cannot deliver on the duties expected of him as an MP because he could end up in jail due to the criminal trial he is facing and the constituency would be left without an MP.

The President told the voters to elect NPP’s Charles Opoku for the seat.

“We should not support or vote for individuals who are entangled in legal controversies that may eventually lead them to face imprisonment. We need someone who can come and help you. Someone who will work in your interest. I heard Gyakye Quayson say that even in prison, you people will vote for him, can he work from jail?

“We vote for people to go to Parliament to work, how can he work from prison? So don’t vote for someone who will end up in jail, vote for someone who can work to improve your lives,” Nana Akufo-Addo admonished.

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Pollsters divided over which party will win Assin North

Meanwhile, YEN.com.gh has reported in a separate story that there is a division in opinion polls on the outcome of the Assin North by-election among pollsters in Ghana.

While the Executive Director of Global InfoAnalytics tips the NDC to win more votes on June 27, Ben Ephson tips the NPP candidate to win.

Earlier, both pollsters had predicted that the outcome of the Assin North by-election would be difficult to predict.

Source: YEN.com.gh