New entrant in the recently held New Patriotic Party ( NPP) presidential race, Dr Bryan Acheampong, proved beyond every reasonable doubt that he is a force to reckon with as far as NPP politics is concerned.
The Member of Parliament (MP) for Abetifi and former Minister of Food and Agriculture placed third in the election with 36,303 votes, representing 18.53 per cent of the valid votes cast.
Former Vice-President, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, won with 110,645 votes, representing 56.48 per cent, to become the NPP flag bearer for the 2028 general election.
A former MP for Assin Central, Kennedy Agyapong, placed second with 46,554 votes, representing 23.76 per cent, while the MP for Bosomtwe and former Minister of Education, Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum, came fourth with 1,999 votes, representing 1.02 per cent.
A former NPP General Secretary, Kwabena Agyepong, was fifth with 402 votes, representing 0.2 per cent.
Statistics
Dr Acheampong also won the Volta Region and performed creditably in his home region, Eastern, by winning six out of the 33 constituencies.
He won three out of the five constituencies in the Kwahu enclave, which were Abetifi, Mpraeso and Afram Plains South.
The other three constituencies where Dr Acheampong emerged victorious in the Eastern Region were Upper Manya, Yilo Krobo and Asene-Akroso-Manso. He was also the runner-up in the entire polls in the Eastern Region by polling 5,918 votes, as against 10,487 votes obtained by Dr Bawumia.
Dr Acheampong’s outstanding performance in the polls underlined his status as a third force in the NPP.
Support
Considering the transparency of the election and the adequate security provided by the Police Administration, led by the hardworking IGP, Christian Tetteh Yohuno, all four losing candidates accepted the result of the election in good faith.
They subsequently promised to rally behind Dr Bawumia to enable the NPP to win the 2028 general election.
Cross-section of supporters
A cross-section of NPP supporters contacted by this writer stressed the need for the losing candidates’ promise not to be a rhetoric, but they must actualise their action in order to achieve their cherished ambition come December 2028.
They called for unity among NPP members, without which the party could not win the next general election.
The concerned NPP supporters also enjoined the top hierarchy of the party to thoroughly investigate the causes of the party’s humiliating defeat in 2024 and galvanise the needed human and material resources to solve the problems that caused the loss to ensure victory in 2028.
They mentioned some of the problems as NPP officials’ neglect of the party’s grassroot supporters, who felt peeved after campaigning for them in previous general elections.
The aggrieved supporters claimed that due to the neglect, about 2.1 million NPP supporters failed to participate in the 2024 general election.
In an interview with Yaw Yeboah, Dr Acheampong’s campaign manager in the just-ended NPP’s presidential primary, he said his candidate’s preoccupation at the moment was to rally behind Dr Bawumia to campaign effectively to emerge victorious in the 2028 general election.
He seized the opportunity to appeal to the supporters of the four losing candidates to put the results behind them and campaign for Dr Bawumia to emerge victorious in the 2028 general polls.
Source:
www.graphic.com.gh