The Director of Election of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) Evans Nimako has said that the defeat of his party in the Assin North by-election does not mean the people have rejected the NPP.
He said the results of the Assin North byelection cannot be used to project what will transpire in the 2024 general elections.
“They have retained their seat. It doesn’t amount to a rejection of the NPP. We have large numbers to win election 2024 and you can’t use this to predict election 2024,” Mr Evans Nimako told Johnnie Hughes on the Sunrise show on 3FM Thursday, June 29.
Following the election, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo told his party members to keep their heads up, recognizing that, in a democracy, there are winners and losers, and that we live to fight another day.
In a statement, he said that Ghana’s democratic credentials were strengthened even further following the conduct of peaceful and credible elections in the Assin North by-election.
“I congratulate warmly the Chairperson and Members of the Electoral Commission, again, for a job well-done. The security services are to be commended for maintaining law and order during the holding of the elections; as is the media for providing extensive coverage before, during and after the elections.
“I congratulate the National Democratic Congress on its victory yesterday. I urge members of my party, the New Patriotic Party, to keep their heads up, recognizing that, in a democracy, there are winners and losers, and that we live to fight another day. We once held the Assin North seat, and I am confident that, sooner rather than later, Assin North will be blue again.”
During the by-election, Mr Gyakye Quayson beat Charles Opoku of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and Bernice Enyonam Sefenu of the Liberal Party of Ghana (LPG) to reclaim the seat in the Tuesday, June 27 by-election.
His votes margin as compared to the 2020 results is over 1,300. In that election, Mr Gyakye Quayson polled 17,498 votes to beat NPP’s Abena Durowaa Mensah, who polled 14,193.
Mr Gyakye Quayson, who was declared invalidly elected in 2020 by a Supreme Court judgement, will return to take his seat in Parliament.