By Ashiadey Dotse
Former government spokesperson on governance and security, Palgrave Boakye Danquah, says the New Patriotic Party (NPP) is deeply saddened by its defeat in the Akwatia by-election, which was won by the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC).
Speaking in an interview on GTV’s Breakfast Show on Wednesday, September 3, 2025, Mr Boakye Danquah admitted the loss was a heavy blow to the party, especially as its numbers in Parliament are already not strong.
“It is not very good news for us. Our numbers are not good in Parliament and our party is rebuilding. This makes it worse. We are very sad that we lost the election and we would have wished that we had won,” he said.
He explained that the constituency has always been a political battleground between the NPP and NDC, and losing it again shows that the NDC has made significant gains in the area. According to him, the party needs to take the results seriously and work harder to restructure and rebuild.
Mr Boakye Danquah also admitted that the decision to present Solomon Asumadu as the NPP candidate without holding a competitive primary caused some discontent. He suggested that the outcome shows the importance of listening to grassroots voices in candidate selection.
He further noted that sympathy votes expected after the passing of the former MP did not reflect in the results.
After the election, NPP’s parliamentary candidate, Solomon Asumadu, polled 15,235 votes against NDC’s Bernard Bediako Baidoo, who emerged victorious with 18,199 votes. The Liberal Party of Ghana’s (LPG) Patrick Owusu managed only 82 votes. Out of the total ballots cast, 33,819 were valid, while 303 were rejected.
