Director of Communications for the New Patriotic Party, Richard Ahigbah, has blamed the National Democratic Congress’ defeat in the just-ended Kumawu bye-elections on their lackadaisical attitude towards the election.

According to him, unlike the NPP that had taken the election very seriously, the NDC had merely arrived in Kumawu three days to the election and “they came to do some skirmishes there.”

Speaking on JoyNews’ PM Express, he said the NPP had deployed adequate resources to ensure electoral victory in the bye-elections and called on the general public to disregard accusations of vote-buying.

“The NDC came there; they didn’t put in any work. NDC showed up in town three days or so to the election and they came to do some skirmishes there, they think that’s how they win people’s votes? But we took this election very seriously.

“The NPP had deployed all that we needed to deploy to make sure that we canvas the votes that we needed to canvas because we took the elections seriously. We were not considering of the fact that it is our backyard and therefore we were just going to coast around and have people go and vote. We are taking it serious,” he said.

Mr. Ahigbah added that the seriousness which they attached to this bye-election will be carried forward towards other elections particularly the 2024 general elections where the NPP is hoping to retain power.

“The new leadership of the party has an orientation to say that every election is one that has to be taken seriously so this new energy you see is what you’re going to see throughout from now till 2024. So we think that what needed to be done was what we did and if we move to the NDC’s stronghold anywhere in this country that’s how we’re going to canvass for votes and make sure that the NPP wins in 2024.

“And indeed if you heard the president speak on Sunday, he was clear in his statement to say that we are commencing our victory in 2024 in Kumawu. So I think that the signal of this result that we are talking about here indicates clearly that the New Patriotic Party is poised, we’re ready and committed to give every effort to make sure that we win the 2024 election,” he said.

His comments follow allegations of vote-buying leveled against the NPP by some NDC personalities including the NDC parliamentary candidate, Akwasi Amankwaa who said he had witnessed blatant vote-buying at certain poll stations in Kumawu.

The NPP has denied the allegations.