John Dumelo battles Fred Nuamah for NDC Awayaso West seat

Two best friends, both from Ghana’s film industry, Fred Nuamah and John Dumelo have both confirmed they would contest for the parliamentary primaries of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) for the Ayawaso West Constituency in the Greater Accra Region.

“I have officially picked forms to contest the Ayawaso West Wuogon parliamentary primaries”, Fred Nuamah, Chief Executive of the Ghana Movie Awards announced on Sunday as he put out an campaign flyer that has a smiling photograph of himself beside the party emblem and name of the National Democratic Congress (NDC).

The artwork described Fred Nuamah as a “parliamentary hopeful” and has the slogan, “Your Wahala Be My Wahala”.

A few hours after Fred Nuamah’s digital campaign posters went  viral, actor John Dumelo too to his Tweet account to announce: “after an extensive consultation with my God, my family and our party faithful in Ayawaso West Wuogon! This’s the second coming. #Still IDey4you”.

John Dumelo’s post was also accompanied by a digital campaign flyer that has his smiling face.

Unlike Fred Nuamah who is not known for hard core partisan politics, John Dumelo is the most recent NDC parliamentary candidate for the Ayawaso West seat after he contested but lost very narrowly in the 2020 general elections.

Many, after the 2020 results, urged Dumelo to give the seat a second try as he stood a great chance of snatching it from the New Patriotic Party (NPP)’s Lydia Seyram Alhassan, who became MP after her husband, who was the MP passed on and paved way for a rather bloody by-election.

In recent months, speculations were rife that John Dumelo would not give the Wuogon seat a second try and that he would rather move to the Volta Region, his home region to continue grab one of the seats there.

Political pundits said it would be wrong for the NDC to allow John Dumelo to the Volta Region to contest for an already safe seat that is occupied by the same NDC and that it would be more profitable if he returns to contest the Wuogon seat which he nearly won.

The analysis was that Dumelo is an attractive political commodity who has been baptized into the art and craft of retail politics and he returns to the Ayawaso West campaign field as an already marketed candidate with first-hand practical experience and not just theoretical fanciful hypothesis.

At the 2020 elections, the NPP candidate, who was the incumbent, Lydia Seyram Alhassan polled 39851, while John Dumelo, a first timer polled 37478, kissing defeat with some 2,373 votes less.

Apart from Fred and John, one other who has expressed ambition for the same Ayawaso West on the NDC ticket is a former Vice President of the University of Ghana SRC, Moses Baafi Acheampong.