The National Communications Officer of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), Sammy Gyamfi, says the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) must be worried about the significant voter apathy it suffered in the just-ended Kumawu by-election.

He mentioned that the NDC increased its votes by 1,284, while the NPP only saw an increase of 304 votes. He also noted that despite being considered one of the NPP’s strongholds in the Ashanti region, the voter apathy in the constituency dropped marginally.

Sammy Gyamfi expressed on Facebook that the NPP’s high voter apathy could potentially have an impact on the 2024 presidential polls.

“In short, the NDC increased its votes by 1,284 while the NPP increased their votes by only 304. The NPP also suffered very high voter apathy and/or voter turnout. Clearly, our friends in the NPP must be very worried about this alarmingly high voter apathy in Kumawu which can possibly reflect in the 2024 presidential polls.

“Given the fact that Kumawu is one of the hard-line traditional strongholds of the NPP in the Ashanti Region and given the unprecedented vote buying the NPP and the Akufo-Addo/Bawumia government engaged in the run-up to this Kumawu by-election, the results from the Kumawu by-election is victory for the great NDC. There is however more room for improvement for the NDC,” he asserted.

Ernest Yaw Anim, the New Patriotic Party’s parliamentary candidate for the Kumawu by-election on Tuesday, May 23, emerged as the winner in the polls.

At the end of the by-election on May 23, 2023, Mr. Anim received 15,264 votes, defeating the National Democratic Congress (NDC) candidate, Kwasi Amankwaa, and two Independent Candidates, both named Kweku Duah.

Kwasi Amankwaa from the NDC garnered 3,723 votes, while one of the Kwaku Duah candidates had 2,478 votes, and the other Kwaku Duah managed only 62 votes.

There were accusations of vote-buying perpetrated by the NPP.