The renowned pollster, Ben Ephson, has said that the yet-to-be conducted by-election in the Assin North constituency may swing in favour of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) on the basis that the party maintains James Gyakye Quayson as parliamentary candidate.
He maintains that the embattled Assin North Member of Parliament will draw sympathy votes if he decides to stand again.
Speaking to Beatrice Adu on The Big Bulletin on Tuesday (26 April), Ephson said: “I think that if the NDC wants to have a chance of possibly retaining Assin North, they have no choice but to go with Gyakye Quayson who may get a few sympathy votes from swing voters in the constituency. If the NDC decides to pick a new candidate, it is going to be difficult for them to maintain the seat.”
Listen to Ephson in the attached audio clip below:
Assin North by-election will be test of popularity
Ephson in an earlier interview said that the by-election in the Assin North constituency will be a test of popularity between the two major political parties; the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and the National Democratic Congress (NDC).
According to him, the 2020 general elections were an indication that the Ghanaian voter has matured and therefore, this can be a closely contested by-election.
“The NDC will view it as a test of their popularity and it’ll also be viewed as a test of the government’s popularity.
“So, the NPP lost the seat and I think that Gyakye won because of the father’s popularity. Now, if there’s a by-election and Gyakye decides to contest and NDC wins it, they’ll say it’s a continuation of their strength and maybe a reflection of the government.
“I think that if the NPP wins the by-election, they will have more political advantage that ‘if you say we’re not doing well, we’ve taken a seat, we’ve won,” Ephson told Asaase News’s Caleb Ahinakwah.
“I think that one of the principles of the 2020 [general] elections has been that or it tells you that the Ghanaian voter has matured and the swing voters are a lot. So, the by-election itself will be interesting and will have a lot of political fall-outs,” he said.
Nicholas Brown
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