The NPP Helped The CPP To Win The Kumbungu By-Election - Ben Ephson

Ben Ephson, a Pollster and Managing Editor of the Daily Dispatch newspaper has expressed sympathy for the Convention People�s Party, admonishing its members not to pride themselves with the victory of Hon. Amadu Yahya in the by-election held at the Kumbungu consituency last Tuesday. According to him, the CPP should not be tickling itself for winning the by-election because of some issues he addressed in an interview with Radio Gold. He disclosed that the CPP Parliamentary representative swept away 13,020 votes to outwit his competitor, Alhaji Imoro Yakubu Kpagu of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) who polled 11,896 votes because members of the opposition New Patriotic Party transferred their votes to him due to their rancour with the ruling NDC. He wondered how the CPP MP-elect could have polled such numbers when he couldn�t achieve a tremendous height in the December 7 Parliamentary polls last year. Asking �what has happened in four months between December 7th and 30th April for him to get 8906 votes more?...What did the CPP MP-elect do in four months to get 8900 votes plus?�, the Daily Dispatch editor further sought to clarify some points. He explained that but for the NPP supporters who cast their votes for Hon. Yahya, he couldn�t have got those huge numbers. He added that if an NPP candidate had contested the Parliamentary seat at Kumbungu in the Northern Region, it would have affected the results. He found it unrealistic for Hon. Yahya to pull those votes, had the NPP not supported him. �We must be realistic. I said the 8900 votes, where did it come from in four months? The man who benefited said this; NPP voted for him; helped in campaign�And look at the numbers, that�s the only reason why he got those numbers of votes.� In his view, the CPP �cannot use that victory to show revival of the CPP�You can�t say that by winning this seat, the CPP is revived�It�s the NPP which helped the CPP to win. Already there were disagreements within the NDC in Kumbungu. But I�m saying that if the NPP had contested, NDC would have won the seat.�