Ghana‘s arts minister loses parliamentary seat

The news follows Ghana’s general elections, which took place on Monday. Oteng Gyasi had represented the New Patriotic Party (NPP) as a member of parliament (MP). She lost her seat to the opposition party National Democratic Congress’s (NDC’s) candidate, Wisdom Cudjoe, after garnering 34 067 votes against Cudjoe’s 56 464.

Prior to her role as minister, Oteng Gyasi served as a deputy minister for Lands and Natural Resources, while Cudjoe served as a district chief executive for the region under two previous NDC governments, before he became the party’s MP-elect.

Oteng Gyasi’s defeat adds to the tally of more than 20 ministerial appointees of the Nana Akufo-Addo-led government who have lost their parliamentary seats. In the build-up to the election, the former minister insisted that her government had fulfilled most of its promises and led a positive change in the region during its first term.

The NPP’s 2020 manifesto pledged to include the setting up of a creative arts fund for artists and the construction of new theatres in Takoradi and Tamale as well as large recording studios in Accra and Kumasi, among other regions. It also promised to build digital platforms for artists to make their products available to the global market.

Oteng Gyasi also told her constituency that the NPP would continue its good work. However, her opponent disagreed, claiming that Oteng Gyasi's underwhelming performance in the past four years led to her defeat.

“We had an idea of the outcome because when we went around visiting our people, they were calling us to come back,” Cudjoe said after the results were tallied.

“Whatever we left in terms of development is still where we left it now. So, they decided not to waste another four years again and rather bring us back again to continue our good work. The trick was just about our past performance.”

Meanwhile, Ghana’s electoral commission has declared Akufo-Addo as the winner of the 2020 elections. He polled 51.59% of valid votes cast against John Mahama of the NDC, who received 47.36%.