Andrew Amoako Asiamah, MP-elect for Fomena
The New Patriotic Party (NPP) will now extend its majority in Parliament, as the Independent MP-elect for Fomena, in the Ashanti Region, has confirmed his intention to sit with the governing party’s MPs in the House.
Andrew Amoako Asiamah, the only independent candidate who was successful in the December 7 elections, says he is doing so out of this commitment and loyalty to the cause of the NPP, and in line with the wishes of his constituents.
“I said that I was winning for the party. I don’t have any place to go. My blood, my DNA, my everything is NPP,” he said.
Constituents demand
Speaking to the media yesterday in Parliament, Mr Asiamah said although he won the 2020 polls as an independent candidate, his constituents have urged him to associate with the NPP.
“I am taking this decision with the prior recognition of my constituents. I am not speaking just for myself. I am speaking for my people. What they told me is what I am speaking out. My people are saying, in spite of whatever happened, I should still be with NPP,” he said.
The seat of the Fomena MP was declared vacant by the Speaker of Parliament in the run up to the December 7 general elections, after he had been expelled from the NPP following his decision to run for the seat against the party’s elected candidate.
“Frankly, I was not happy with the decision of the Speaker. I had not come across any precedents. But it is all good, he stated, adding that he had made “no demands from the government.”
“But I believe that the party will do what is right and needful for my people. What I am looking for is to make sure that everything the party does is open and transparent,” he added.
NDC’s move
Mr Amoako Asiamah disclosed that the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) also approached him in an attempt to get him to sit with its MPs in the 8th Parliament.
According to him, he explained to the NDC why he could not join its MPs.
“In a way, the NDC had earlier approached me, but I made them aware, and they appreciated where I am coming from,” he said.
“I belong to that house (NPP), and I am going home, and I hope I will be welcomed as such,” Mr Asiamah said.
Mr Asiamah obtained 12,805 of the total votes cast, beating his contenders, Philip Ofori Asante and Christiana Appiagyei, of the NPP and the NDC, who polled 10,798 and 2,608 votes respectively in the December 7 polls.
The Fomena seat was needed to decide the majority side in Parliament due to the closeness of the number of parliamentary seats between the NPP and the NDC.
The NPP has a slim majority of 137 seats as against the NDC’s 136 seats, with the Sene West seat outstanding.
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