Parliamentary candidate of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) for the Essikado Ketan Constituency of the Western Region, Professor Dr. Grace Ayensu-Danquah, has described the Member of Parliament(MP) for the Constituency and Minister for Railway Development, Joe Ghartey, as a “dying breed” politician who has lost touch with the needs of his constituents.
Professor Dr Ayensu-Danquah, who is seeking to unseat the Railways Development Minister said Honorable Joe Ghartey is among the old generation of politicians who are extremely partisan and treat their constituents based on political affiliations.
Speaking on Accra-based Citi FM, the surgeon stated that residents of the Constituency want leaders like her who will address their needs without political considerations. She is therefore confident of beating Mr. Joe Ghartey in the upcoming elections as she claimed to understand their needs and has demonstrated her capability of addressing those needs.
“My constituents do not want politics of the old. My constituents do not want dying-breed politicians. What my constituents want and I believe all other constituents want is proper healthcare, proper infrastructure and chance for them to get out of abject poverty. A dying-breed politician in other words, the old kind of politicians which I think that my opponent is. The kind of politician who is partisan, extremist and you are either blue or green or one side or the other. So if I’m the MP because I’m green, I only see the people on the green side and ignore the people on the blue side. That kind of politics is the dying-breed politics,” she said.
She added that “I’m not an extremist politician and I strongly believe that my opponent is out of touch with reality on the ground and that is why he is underestimating me.”
Prof. Dr. Ayensu-Danquah opined that the world is experiencing a wind of change in politics ushering in a new crop of politicians who are development-oriented like her to replace the extremely partisan politicians like Mr. Ghartey.
“There is a wave going on in the whole world where the youth especially is asking for something different, people not colored in green and blue.
Everyone wants proper healthcare. Whether it is coming from a blue or green participant, it doesn’t matter,” she stated.
The governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) has been winning in the Essikado Ketan Constituency both presidential and parliamentary since the creation of the Constituency in 2004.
In the last General Elections, the incumbent MP, Joe Ghartey secured 59.3 percent of the total valid votes cast to retain the seat with his closest contender, the NDC’s Joseph Kofi Mensah only managing to secure 35.56 percent of the total valid votes.
But the medical practitioner is certain that she has what it takes to break the NPP’s dominance in the Constituency.
