Member of Parliament for Asante Akim North, Andy Appiah-Kubi, has explained the circumstances that led to his massive defeat in the 2024 parliamentary election.
Appiah-Kubi, who contested on the ticket of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP), was unseated by an independent candidate, Ohene Kwame Frimpong, a businessman and owner of Salt FM.
Speaking in an interview with Joy News, the incumbent MP disclosed that he was betrayed by some constituency executives of the party, who campaigned against him in favour of the independent candidate ahead of the election.
The whole party, virtually in my constituency, was against me, rather campaigning for the independent candidate. All of them, except one or two or three of them. And the support from external forces that came, I couldn't have survived them.
Andy Appiah-Kubi further noted that the independent candidate, Kwame Frimpong, embarked on a smear campaign against him using Salt FM.
In the interview, he also reflected on leading some NPP MPs to demand the removal of the then Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, stating he had no regrets.
I have no regrets whatsoever for being the advocate on that occasion. I’ll do it again because that is what I believed in at the time. And it was a prayer that we put before the President.
So we did it within the constitution to let the President understand that we were picking information from our constituencies that the hardship was getting unbearable. And it is because of the input from the Finance Ministry that people are facing those challenges. So let’s just get him out and get somebody in so that at least the confidence they bring may even affect economic progression.
Ohene Kwame Frimpong won decisively with 26,926 votes, against Appiah-Kubi’s 8,933 votes. Kofi Asamoah, the candidate of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), polled 2,469 votes.