{"id":13006,"date":"2025-09-02T22:33:13","date_gmt":"2025-09-02T22:33:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/?p=13006"},"modified":"2025-09-02T22:33:13","modified_gmt":"2025-09-02T22:33:13","slug":"ndcs-bernard-bediako-wins-akwatia-by-election","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/?p=13006","title":{"rendered":"NDC\u2019s Bernard Bediako wins Akwatia by-election"},"content":{"rendered":"<p data-start=\"219\" data-end=\"433\">Bernard Bediako Baidoo of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) has won the Akwatia by-election, delivering a crucial victory for the government in one of the most keenly contested electoral battles of the year.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"435\" data-end=\"868\">The Electoral Commission\u2019s certified results showed Bediako securing\u00a0<strong data-start=\"504\" data-end=\"520\">18,199 votes<\/strong>\u00a0of the total valid votes cast. His closest rival,\u00a0<strong data-start=\"596\" data-end=\"613\">Kwame Asumadu<\/strong>\u00a0of the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP), garnered\u00a0<strong data-start=\"668\" data-end=\"684\">15,235 votes<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"435\" data-end=\"868\">Owusu Patrick of the Liberal Party of Ghana (LPG) trailed far behind with\u00a0<strong data-start=\"761\" data-end=\"782\">82 votes<\/strong>. Out of the total ballots cast,\u00a0<strong data-start=\"815\" data-end=\"836\">33,819 were valid<\/strong>, while 303<strong data-start=\"844\" data-end=\"865\">\u00a0were rejected<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"870\" data-end=\"1124\">The by-election was necessitated by the death of Akwatia\u2019s Member of Parliament, Ernest Kumi, earlier this year. Campaigning in the lead-up to the poll was intense, with both the NDC and NPP heavily investing resources and manpower in the constituency.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"1126\" data-end=\"1381\">Voting took place across\u00a0<strong data-start=\"1151\" data-end=\"1175\">119 polling stations<\/strong>\u00a0in Akwatia on Tuesday, September 2, 2025. Polls officially closed at 5 p.m., after which sorting and counting were conducted in the presence of party agents, security officers, and independent observers.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"1383\" data-end=\"1545\">Bediako\u2019s victory sparked jubilant celebrations among NDC supporters, who poured onto the streets of Akwatia in song and dance.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"1547\" data-end=\"1851\">Political analysts note that the result carries significant weight, as Akwatia has historically been a swing constituency, alternating between the NPP and NDC in past elections. The NDC\u2019s latest win is being seen as a major boost to the governing party\u2019s confidence ahead of the 2028 general elections.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"1853\" data-end=\"2049\">With this outcome, Bernard Bediako becomes the new MP for Akwatia, promising to continue the work of his predecessor while advancing the development agenda of the government in the constituency.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Bernard Bediako Baidoo of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) has won the Akwatia by-election, delivering a crucial victory for the government in one of the most keenly contested electoral battles of the year. The Electoral Commission\u2019s certified results showed Bediako securing\u00a018,199 votes\u00a0of the total valid votes cast. His closest rival,\u00a0Kwame Asumadu\u00a0of the opposition New [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":123457,"featured_media":13007,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[41,18],"tags":[3748,4006,67],"class_list":["post-13006","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general-news","category-politics","tag-akwatia-by-election","tag-bediako","tag-ndc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13006","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/123457"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13006"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13006\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13008,"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13006\/revisions\/13008"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/13007"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13006"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13006"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13006"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}