{"id":117663,"date":"2026-03-03T11:01:36","date_gmt":"2026-03-03T11:01:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=117663"},"modified":"2026-03-03T11:01:36","modified_gmt":"2026-03-03T11:01:36","slug":"low-voter-turnout-at-ayawaso-east-by-election-unsurprising-npps-boakye-agyarko","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=117663","title":{"rendered":"Low voter turnout at Ayawaso East by-election unsurprising \u2014 NPP\u2019s Boakye Agyarko"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A former Energy Minister and aspirant for the National Patriotic Party (NPP) chairmanship, Boakye Kyeremanteng Agyarko, has attributed the low voter turnout at the Ayawaso East parliamentary by-election to entrenched patterns in Ghanaian electoral behaviour, where by-elections rarely spark the same enthusiasm as general elections.<\/p>\n

The by-election was triggered by the death of sitting MP Naser Toure Mahama on January 4, following a brief illness. <\/p>\n

Mahama, who had been re-elected in the 2024 general elections, was a four-term legislator. The current race features five candidates, including NPP\u2019s Yussif Baba Ali and independent contender Alhaji Mohammed Umaru Sanda, a former NDC member.<\/p>\n

Speaking on Tuesday at one of the 113 polling centres in the constituency, Agyarko said two main factors were suppressing participation. <\/p>\n

First, by-elections in general attract lower voter engagement nationwide. <\/p>\n

Second, he noted that the perceived predictability of the outcome in stronghold constituencies discourages voters from showing up.<\/p>\n

\u201cBy and large, by-elections are not that patronised in this country,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cBy-elections in strongholds are presumed as foregone conclusions. And that in itself depresses voter turnout.\u201d<\/p>\n

The comment comes in the context of Ayawaso East, a constituency historically leaning strongly towards the National Democratic Congress (NDC). <\/p>\n

Pre-election polling by Global InfoAnalytics projected NDC candidate Baba Jamal \u2014 a former Ghana High Commissioner to Nigeria \u2014 to secure up to 75 per cent of the vote. <\/p>\n

Agyarko suggested such projections can dissuade even loyal voters from casting their ballots.<\/p>\n

Polling will close at 5 p.m., with results expected later in the evening.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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A former Energy Minister and aspirant for the National Patriotic Party (NPP) chairmanship, Boakye Kyeremanteng Agyarko, has attributed the low voter turnout at the Ayawaso East parliamentary by-election to entrenched patterns in Ghanaian electoral behaviour, where by-elections rarely spark the same enthusiasm as general elections.<\/p>\n

The by-election was triggered by the death of sitting MP Naser Toure Mahama on January 4, following a brief illness. Mahama, who had been re-elected in the 2024 general elections, was a four-term legislator. The current race features five candidates, including NPP\u2019s Yussif Baba Ali and independent contender Alhaji Mohammed Umaru Sanda, a former NDC member.<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_2277560469115098_106292521332774":"","twitter_aToxNzczMzI3Njk4OTg4ODUxMjAxOw==_1773327698988851200":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1131,1906,1881,10,9,17792],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-117663","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-boakye-agyarko","category-hp-news-5","category-npp","category-politics","category-popular","category-voter-turnout"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117663","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=117663"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117663\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=117663"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=117663"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=117663"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}