Member of Parliament for Cape Coast South, Kweku George Ricketts-Hagan, has suggested that the New Patriotic Party (NPP) could have won the Assin Central seat in the 2024 elections if the incumbent MP, Kennedy Ohene Agyapong, had been more involved in the campaign.
Ricketts-Hagan’s comments come after the National Democratic Congress (NDC) secured a historic victory in Assin Central, a seat traditionally held by the NPP.
Nurein Shiabu Migyimah of the NDC won the seat with 16,343 votes (50.6%), narrowly defeating the NPP’s candidate, Godfred Anewu, who received 15,926 votes (49.4%).
Speaking on State of Affairs on GHOne TV, Ricketts-Hagan believes that Ohene Agyapong’s involvement would have made a significant difference in the outcome.
He noted that Ohene Agyapong’s national campaign for the presidency distracted him from focusing on his constituency, ultimately affecting the NPP’s chances of retaining the seat.
According to him, Ohene Agyapong’s popularity and influence in the constituency were crucial factors in the NPP’s previous successes, and his absence from the campaign trail proved costly for the party.
He said, “Because of the opportunity I had to serve under John Mahama as the Central Regional Minister, I became so much involved in the detail voting analysis of the central region, especially in the 2016 election. I’ve always have the believe that if we didn’t have Kennedy Agyapong, that seat could be taken, if we didn’t have his backing. You realised that he went for President and it wasn’t successful, enjoyed more of a national Campaign , in a look warm kind of way but he didn’t pay much attention to his constituency by backing the NPP candidate to the hills. if he has done so, which mean he was 100% into that candidate, probably that could have made a difference, people felt Kennedy was gone.”
