Both the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the New Patriotic Party (NPP) have expressed optimism of winning the Ayawaso East parliamentary by-election slated for next month.

While the NDC said it was looking forward to increasing the gap from the 2024 polls, the NPP said its candidate was well-grounded and thus poised to win.

The candidates representing the two parties – Baba Jamal Mohammed Ahmed for the NDC and Baba Ali Yussif for the NPP, yesterday, filed their nominations to contest the poll scheduled for Tuesday, March 3, 2026.

The Deputy Director of Elections and IT of the NDC, Tanko Rashid-Computer, and the Director of Research and Elections of NPP, Evans Nimako, said this yesterday after an Inter-Party Advisory Committee (IPAC) meeting called by the Electoral Commission (EC) ahead of the Ayawaso East by-election.

Participants

The meeting was attended by representatives of political parties, police, civil society organisations and the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE), among others.

It discussed the roadmap towards the by-election following the death of the Member of Parliament (MP) for the Ayawaso East Constituency, Mahama Naser Toure.

At the meeting, the EC informed the parties of the modalities that had been put in place for a peaceful and successful poll in the Ayawaso East Constituency. 

The issues discussed included printing of ballot papers, balloting for positioning on the ballot papers, which has been slated today, Thursday, February 12, 2026, at the Regional EC Office.

The arrangement is that parties will be accredited to be at the printing house that will be selected for the printing of ballot papers. 

Rashid-Computer

Interacting with the media, Mr Rashid-Computer confirmed that the party was ready for the by-election as it had officially filed its candidate yesterday.

“We are going to win, and our aim is to increase the margin; that is why we are going in, it’s not about winning – it is increasing the margin.

The last time we got 22,000 plus, we are expecting to go further, at least to about 25,000, because of the good works of President John Mahama and what the party is doing for the good people of Ayawaso East, so we are expecting a very massive win,” he said.

He said the NDC was thinking the NPP would chicken out, since, naturally, the constituency was not a place for the NPP to waste anybody’s time.

“But since they are coming …we would give them the heaviest defeat in their life as a political party and so we are ready for it and so we are sure we are going to win,” he said.

Nimako

“The party is very confident that we are winning the seat this time round because our candidate is someone who understands the terrain, the nitty gritty, the concerns of the constituents, and so the people are going to honour him with that victory,” Mr Nimako said.

He said the party told the EC that the 2024 presidential and parliamentary elections had not been reviewed, and thus it was important that that was done.
That, he said, was accepted.

Again, he said the NPP indicated that it was ready to support the EC with a Constitutional Instrument (CI) that would ensure that results from the polling stations were electronically collated “so that it would be a backup to the manual results collected and transported to the collation centres”.

“For us in the NPP, we want to see signs that would ensure that our democracy would grow very well,” he said.