Despite the antics played by the New Patriotic Party (NPP) in the Wassa East Constituency to whisk the seat from the incumbent Member of Parliament, Mr Isaac Adjei Mensah, the electorates gave their endorsement to the incumbent to return him to the next parliament.
Mr Adjei Mensah secured victory in the just ended 2020 general elections with a total of 21,714 valid votes after beating his main contender Mr Wilson Arthur, the NPP aspirant who garnered 18,929 of the valid votes.
The total valid ballots was 40,643 with 623 rejected ballots and total votes cast recording 41,266.
This is the fourth time Mr Adjei Mensah, who is also a former Deputy Minister for Roads and Highways under the late President Atta Mills’ administration has been elected into office after securing the seat for the first time in the 2008 general elections.
Meanwhile, this is Mr Arthur who doubles as the District Chief Executive (DCE) for the Wassa East District’s third time for contesting the parliamentary seat all to no avail.
According to some political analysts, Mr Arthur who is a Media giant in the country lost two contests to the NDC and as a strategy to push him ahead of his contenders, gave him the position of the DCE to enable him harness the ambition.
However, taking a cue from the 2020 general elections, the DCE’s influence could not match that of the NDC’s candidate as Mr John Mahama polled 20,411 votes as against 18,489 votes polled by President Akufo-Addo.
This can be interpreted to mean that the NDC candidate’s efforts in amassing votes for the flagbearer yielded more results than that of Mr Arthur looking at the resources available to him.
Story: Seth Ameyaw Danquah
