Kumawu — Ernest Yaw Anim, the parliamentary candidate of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) won the Kumawu Constituency in the Ashanti Region by-election when he garnered 15,264 valid votes to retain the seat for the party.

Kwasi Amankwah, contestant for the National Democratic Congress (NDC) polled 3,723 valid votes while the two independent candidates, both called Kwaku Duah, who occupied the third and fourth places on the ballot had 2,478 and 62 votes respectively.

Total valid votes cast were 21,527 and total vote cast was 21,731 with rejected ballots of 204.

Kumawu Township was set agog by jubilant NPP members, supporters, faithful, well-wishers and sympathisers moment the Ashanti Regional Director of the Electoral Commission (EC), Benjamin Bannor-Bio announced the results at the Presbyterian Church which was the collation center.

The election was supervised by the EC led by Dr Serebour Quaicoe in charge of Elections but the Kumawu Constituency Returning Officer, Paul Agyemang made the declaration.

The polls were largely peaceful, watched by heavy police presence, with the NPP and NDC deploying high-level officials as polling station agents.

Kumawu has 34,800 registered voters, however, the turnout was generally below par.

Tuesday's by-election, supervised by the EC, was triggered by the demise of Philip Atta Basoah, who was the Member of Parliament (MP) for the area who died on March 27, this year and was buried on May 20.

Dr Quaicoe described the election as peaceful, credible and transparent and commended the media and police for their contributions.

Mr Anim thanked all and sundry for the victory and assured of working with all to ensure a resounding victory for the NPP in the 2024 general election.