Fifty-seven parliamentary candidates made up of 56 male and a female are contesting in the 18 constituencies in the Northern Region.
Fifty-three of them are contesting on the ticket of nine registered political parties with only 4 contesting as independent candidates.
With barely 11 days to the December 7 polls, 3news.com‘s Christopher Amoako takes a look at the political atmosphere in these constituencies.
Before the creation of the North East and Savannah regions, the then Northern Region was made up of 31 constituencies.
It used to be a stronghold for the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC).
However, with the creation of the Savannah and North East regions out of the then Northern Region, both the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and NDC are holding on to 9 constituencies each despite the NDC winning the presidential ballot.
The NDC held 18 constituencies in Parliament while the NPP had representation in 13 constituencies.
In 2012, for instance, the NPP won only 8 seats but made significant improvements in 2016 by winning 5 more seats, bringing the total of seats won by the NPP to 13.
This means that the NDC lost five seats to the NPP in the 2016 general elections.
In 2019, after the creation of the Savannah and North East regions, the Northern Region now has 18 constituencies with both the NDC and the NPP occupying nine seats each.
Kpandai, Wulensi, Bimbilla, Yendi, Saboba, Gushegu, Nanton, Tolon and Savelugu constituencies are occupied by the NPP.
On the other hand, Tatale, Zabzugu, Tamale South, Tamale North, Tamale Central, Sagnarigu, Mion, Kumbungu and Karaga constituencies are occupied by the NDC.
Some of the constituencies like Yendi, Gusheigu, Tolon, Kumbungu and Saboba are fielding new candidates who will slug it out on December 7.
The NPP has never won a single seat in the 4 constituencies in the Tamale enclave, where majority of the votes come from.
With 11 days to the December 7 elections, both the NPP and the NDC are looking forward to winning more seats than the other.
While the NPP is seeking to win 13 seats out of the 18 seats in the region, the NDC, on the other hand, is targeting 16 out of 18 seats.
The Convention People’s Party (CPP), the People’s National Convention (PNC), All People’s Congress (APC), Ghana Union Movement (GUM), Liberal Party of Ghana (LPG), National Democratic Party (NDP) and Progressive People’s Party (PPP) have all presented candidates to contest the parliamentary elections.
The ruling NPP is hinging its success on the restoration of peace in Dagbon, the Sinohydro Tamale Interchange and other social intervention programmes like the Free Senior High School, NABCo, Planting for Food and Jobs, among others.
But the NDC thinks the massive infrastructure expansion such as the Tamale Airport, Tamale Teaching Hospital, the Mahama E-Blocks, the Eastern Corridor roads and the hundreds of CHPS compounds and school blocks will do the magic.
So far, presidential candidates for the NPP, NDC and CPP together with their running mates have all toured the region campaigning to the electorate to vote for them and their parliamentary candidates.
Despite pockets of attacks and confusions, which pose security threat on the elections, being recorded in the Region, both the Electoral Commission and the security agencies have given an assurance of free, fair, transparent and event-free elections.
By Christopher Amoako|3news.com|Northern Region|Ghana