Member of Parliament for Bongo Constituency on the ticket of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Edward Abambire Bawa said contrary to impressions created particularly by the media that his main contender, Peter Ayinbisa of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) was going to give him a tough competition in the December 7 polls, he was certain of retaining the seat with ease and a wider margin.
Speaking on Dreamz FM’s current affairs show, State of Our Nation, Mr. Bawa said the media hype his main contender enjoyed, prior to the election, created an impression that he had lost touch with his constituents and that his main contender was gaining grounds in the constituency and could snatch the seat from him.
But the facts on the grounds, he stated, said otherwise as his constituents were satisfied with his leadership and ready to renew his mandate.
He said although his supporters got worried along the line and urged him to dispel such impressions, he could not be bothered since he was certain of a landslide victory.
“In 2020, I knew clearly that we were going to win and we were going to increase our margins. I was convinced of winning. i can understand what media houses do. The fact that you have access to the mic, you can say things that may not necessarily be representative of what is on the ground. And so I had this experience where my people were getting worried and it was because of the media hype and consistently, I had my boys tell me to go refute the impression created out there because it appears people were worried. But I tell them ‘you hear those things but you go on the ground, does what they say reflect on the ground? So why are you worried?’,” he stated.
The Bongo Constituency was one of the Constituencies in the Upper East Region tipped to be keenly contested in the 2020 General Elections as many believed the DCE, who was contesting on the ticket of the NPP, stood a greater chance of snatching the seat from the incumbent MP.
But the incumbent MP, Mr. Bawa proved political watchers wrong as he polled 26,268 representing 57.7 percent of the total valid votes, an increase from the 49.7 percent he secured in 2016 to beat the DCE who only managed to garnered 17,276 representing 37.9 percent of the total valid votes cast.
Peter Ayinbisa, however, attributed his opponent’s victory in the election to last-minute intervention by bigwigs of the NDC.
Mr. Ayinbisa, who spoke in an interview on Dreamz FM in the aftermath of the elections, said he was cruising to victory until stalwarts of the NDC besieged the Constituency few days to the elections with huge resources persuading and threatening his constituents to vote against him hence, his defeat.
But reacting to the assertion of Mr. Ayinbisa, Mr. Bawa intimated that the DCE’s claims are narratives concocted by him to console himself after the humiliating defeat.
