One constituency which will be keenly contested by the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the New Patriotic Party (NPP) parliamentary candidates in the December 7, 2016 general election in the Eastern Region is Asene-Manso-Akroso.
Since the incumbent Member of Parliament (MP) for the constituency, Mr Yaw Owusu-Boateng, bowed out the NDC parliamentary candidate, Mr Richard Roland Acquaah, and his NPP contender, Mr George Kwame Aboagye aka Oluwa, have been fighting tooth and nail in order to occupy the seat, come January 7, 2017.
Mr Acquaah, a native of Akyem Akroso, is currently the District Director of the Youth Employment Agency at Agona Swedru while Mr Aboagye, who hails from Akyem Manso, is an Accra-based businessman.
After filing their nominations and launching their campaigns with fanfares, the two aspiring legislators and their activists have intensified their campaigns in every nook and cranny of the constituency to canvass for votes in order to achieve their ambition.
The Asene-Manso-Akroso Constituency was carved out of the Akyem Oda Constituency, which has been a stronghold of the NPP since 1996. The NPP has won both the presidential and parliamentary polls in the constituency since then.
Mr Acquaah is contesting the parliamentary seat for the second time, having lost the 2012 election to the incumbent NPP MP, Mr Owusu-Boateng by 17,881 votes to 11,765, showing a difference of 6,116 votes.
In an interview with the Daily Graphic, Mr Acquaah said he was poised to snatch the seat from the NPP.
According to him, he had identified the problems that accounted for his electoral defeat in 2012 and found lasting solutions to them to enhance his chances on December 7, 2016.
He stressed that he had done his homework to garner a sizeable number of votes from the three most populous towns in the constituency, Akyem Asene, Akyem Manso and Akyem Akroso, which had helped the NPP to win the previous elections.
Mr Acquaah said as a grass-roots person, he was always in touch with the people and had people in the constituency to canvass for more votes for him and President John Mahama.
He said he was tried and tested and would not discriminate in the distribution of development projects on party lines.
For that reason, Mr Acquaah promised to continue the projects started by the outgoing NPP MP for the constituency, Mr Owusu-Boateng.
“I am an icon of hope and inspiration of the teeming youth who are yearning to elect me as their MP, come December 7, 2016,” Mr Acquaah stressed.
He claimed that he was a man of action and the people’s choice to lead the constituents in implementing good policies and programmes to uplift the constituency.
Mr Acquaah, who is 37 years, holds a degree in Public Administration/Human Resource Management from the Pan African University, a private educational institution at Winneba, which is affiliated to the University of Cape Coast.
Mr. Acquaah, who is a board member of Akroso Senior High School, predicted 60 per cent victory for President John Mahama and himself to snatch the parliamentary seat, which had been the preserve of the NPP.
Mr Acquaah based his prediction on the numerous development projects he had provided for the constituency even though he is not a parliamentarian.
Mr Aboagye rubbished the bluff of Mr Acquaah that he would win the seat for the NDC and stressed that he (Mr Acquaah) would suffer his second successive electoral defeat on December 7, 2016.
He said for the first time in the history of the constituency, the NPP would win most of the popular votes in the remotest parts of the constituency unlike the previous elections.
According to Mr Aboagye, even though he was not an MP, he had provided many important development projects in the constituency to raise the quality of life of the people.
He mentioned some of the projects as the construction of, a library block at Atweaman Senior High School at Manso and free distribution of mercury street bulbs and chokes to a number of communities, including Akyem Asene.
He predicted 70 per cent of both the presidential and parliamentary votes for the NPP come December 7, 2016.
Mr Aboagye is a product of Akwatia Technical Institute and currently a second year law student at a private university in Accra.
Let’s keep our fingers crossed and wait for the decision of the electorate on December 7 , 2016.
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