Member of Parliament for Bolgatanga East Constituency, Dominic Akuritinga Ayine believes Rev. Emmanuel Abole Abugre who is the New Patriotic Party’s parliamentary candidate for the constituency performed better in this year’s election because he was constantly attending women’s meetings and unduly influenced voters with huge amounts of money.
According to Dominic Ayine, while he was in Accra busily attending to legislative duties, Rev. Abole abandoned his job as the District Chief Executive (DCE) and dedicated his time to attending every function organized in the constituency especially those by women’s groups campaigning and spending lavishly for votes.
The DCE of Bolgatanga East District, Dr. Ayine alleged, took advantage of his inability to personally attend such events due to his legislative duties and instigated some of his constituents against him by falsely claiming that his absence at their meetings was because he did not regard them.
This, he asserted, made him unpopular among section of the constituents and enhanced Rev. Abole’s electoral fortunes in the constituency and thus, his improved performance in the December 7 polls.
“I can tell you why the increase came. It is not just incumbency but an incumbent who is also present in the constituency. So for instance, he was here as DCE, he left his office, he never attended to administrative matters. He was roaming around attending almost every function that the women organized,” Dr. Ayine told Dreamz fm in Bolgatanga.
“There is a women’s group operating village savings and loans scheme. Anytime they called me for their meetings because of my work in parliament, I would send money to my (party’s) chairman to go and give them. Abole was personally attending their meetings and he was telling them that I don’t respect them that’s why when they call me and I wouldn’t go. And because some of them lack understanding of the work of an MP, they believed him. So that worked in a way and because of incumbency, he was giving them more money than I was. Also, when the main election came, he was spending very heavily as if it was a do or die situation,” he added.
The Bolgatanga East District Chief Executive failed for the second time to snatch the Bolgatanga East Constituency seat for the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP).
He polled 6,042 representing 32.77 percent of the total valid votes cast as against his main contender, Dominic Ayine who polled 12,394 representing 67.23 percent.
However, comparative analysis of the performance of the two main contenders in this year’s election and the 2016 election indicates that while Rev. Abole’s performance improved marginally from 28. 44 percent in 2016 to 32.77 percent in 2020, that of Dr. Ayine declined from 70.63 percent in 2016 to 67.23 percent in the recent election.
