Story: Yaw Takyi
Processes are underway by the National Democratic Congress (NDC) to elect a parliamentary candidate for the Odododiodio constituency, as the incumbent MP, Edwin Nii Lantey Vanderpuye, is out of the race.
Three aspirants have so far filed their nominations to contest for the parliamentary slot, which is scheduled for October 31, 2023.
The Chairman of the NDC Elections Committee in the Odododiodio Constituency, Nii Adjebu Lamptey, has advised party sympathizers in the constituency to be circumspect about their utterances during the campaigns.
Speaking to the media, the NDC constituency office, Mr. Lamptey advised, “NDC members and supporters, what we are doing now is internal competition, and we pray that all of them will comport themselves so that we can have a peaceful election. The filing of nominations has been very peaceful, and we expect that it will continue like that. On Friday there will be vetting at the regional party office, and on October 31, the elections will come on as planned.”
Nii Lantey Vanderpuye has been the MP for the constituency since 2013.
He was elected as MP during the 2012 elections, where he faced off against Victor Okaikoi of the New Patriotic Party. Vanderpuye was quite confident about his chances of winning, famously stating in November 2012 that if he got less than 65% of the vote, he would concede the seat to Okaikoi.
In the end, Vanderpuye won by a smaller landslide than expected, with 45,967 votes (63%) against 26,269 (36%) for Okaikoi and 745 (1%) for Emmanuel Odoi of the Convention People’s Party(CPP).
In December 2016, he was retained as the Member of Parliament for the Odododiodio Constituency with 36,606 votes representing 57.04% against his closest contender, the New Patriotic Party, whose candidate had 26,671 votes representing 41.56%.