John Mahama

Former New Patriotic Party (NPP) Constituency Chairman for New Juaben North has said former President John Mahama’s quest to test his popularity in the Ashanti Region failed during the Kumawu bye-election.

Kwadwo Boateng-Agyemang claimed the former President wanted to use the election to make a bold statement in the NPP stronghold ahead of the 2024 general election.

However, he said the poor performance of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) in the bye-election made nonsense of the game plan.

The NDC is patting itself in the back for coming second in the fiercely contested bye-election over the weekend.

Their candidate Kwasi Amankwaa who is a native of Kumawu, came a distant second with 3,727 votes or 17.29 percent while the NPP’s Ernest Yaw Anim had 15,264 votes representing 70.91% to retain the seat for the ruling party.

The opposition party is happy with the performance of its candidate because it is an improvement of what it got in the 2020 general election.

Kwadwo Boateng Agyemang

But the former NPP New Juaben North chairman on Asempa FM’s Ekosii Sen programme Wednesday said the incessant campaign by the NDC led by its flagbearer, John Mahama did not have any impact on the elections.

“Mahama failed the popularity test at Kumawu; he went there and didn’t make an impact. He even abandoned his candidate on voting day,” he scoffed.

Mr Boateng-Agyemang said the performance of the NDC in the just ended by-election will reflect in the 2024 general election.