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The newly elected New Patriotic Party (NPP) parliamentary candidate for the Evalue-Ajomoro-Gwira Constituency in the Western Region, Catherine Abelema Afeku, has appealed to the regional and national executives of the NPP to support orphan constituencies which have issues to address so that parliamentary candidates in those areas would be able to sail through easily for the party.
She also asked her contender and all the delegates, as well as the party faithful to bury their differences and rally behind her to snatch the seat from the National Democratic Congress (NDC) to continue with developmental projects initiated in the constituency.
Ms Afeku said this after she was declared the winner of last Saturday’s parliamentary primary held in the constituency.
The former Evalue-Ajomoro-Gwira Member of Parliament (MP), polled 323 out of a total vote cast of 607, while her main contender, Justice Kangah polled 282 of the votes with two rejected ballots in an election conducted and supervised by the Electoral Commission.
In a victory message, Ms Afeku thanked the delegates for reposing confidence in her yet again by electing her to lead the party in the 2024 parliamentary election.
The NPP parliamentary primaries in orphan constituencies that were held on Saturday, December 2, 2023, across the country were postponed in the Evalue-Ajomoro-Gwira Constituency following a disagreement between the two aspirants in the race.
The aspirants and delegates in the Gwira area wanted the election to be in the Gwira area, arguing that the election was always held in Axim to the neglect of the northern part of the constituency.
After a meeting between the candidates and the regional executives in Takoradi, the Western Regional capital, it was agreed that the primary be held in three different polling stations in Axim, Gwira and Evalue.
Ms Afeku, a former Minister of Tourism, Arts and Culture, won the parliamentary seat for Evalue-Ajomoro-Gwira for the first time for the NPP in 2008 but lost it to the NDC in 2012 and came back to win it in 2016 but lost the seat in the 2020 general election again to the NDC.
The constituency has been one of the swing areas for both the governing NPP and the opposition NDC.
In the 2024 general election, Ms Afeku will once again come face to face with the current sitting NDC MP for the area, Kofi Arko Nokoe, who won the seat with 19, 830 votes representing 53.43 votes in the 2020 polls as against 17,287 votes obtained by Ms Afeku, representing 46.57 per cent.
Ms Afeku is seeking to reclaim the seat she lost in 2020 by her election as the NPP parliamentary candidate for the Evlaue-Ajomoro-Gwira Constituency.
