The Member of Parliament for Fomena, Andrew Amoako Asiamah, says he will side with the New Patriotic Party (NPP) in the 8th Parliament after winning his seat as an independent candidate.
“I said that I was winning for the party. I don’t have any place to go. My blood, my DNA, my everything is NPP,” he told the press in Parliament today, Wednesday, December 16, 2020.
With uncertainty over whether the NPP would retain a majority in Parliament, many wondered if Mr. Asiamah would side with his old party.
The Parliamentary race in the 2020 election was the closest in Ghana’s recent history with the NPP emerging with 137 seats and the National Democratic Congress (NDC) with 136 seats.
There is one seat outstanding in addition to the seat won by Mr. Asiamah.
According to the MP, although he won the 2020 polls as an independent candidate, his constituents have urged him to associate with the NPP.
Reiterating comments made before the polls, Mr. Asiamah thus affirmed that his commitment to the NPP was never in doubt.
“I am taking this decision with the prior recognition of my constituents. I am not speaking just for myself. I am speaking for my people. What they told me is what I am speaking out. My people are saying in spite of whatever happened, I should still be with NPP.”
Mr. Asiamah did not contest the NPP primary ahead of the 2020 polls and the NPP was instead represented by Philip Ofori-Asante.
He defied the party to contest as an independent candidate.
The Speaker of Parliament subsequently removed the MP from Parliament after the NPP demanded the invocation of its constitutional provision that makes a seat vacant after an MP leaves the party that sponsored one’s candidature.
Commenting on this, the Fomena MP said, “frankly I was not happy with the decision of the Speaker. I had not come across any precedence. But it is all good.”
He further said he had “no demands from the government.”
“But I believe that the party will do what is right and needful for my people. What I am looking for is to make sure that everything the party does is open and transparent,” he added.
At the end of the December 7 polls, Mr. Asiamah obtained 12,805 of the total votes cast beating his contenders; Philip Ofori Asante and Christiana Appiagyei of the NDC who polled 10,798 and 2,608 votes respectively.
…Citinewsroom