Mr Blay Armah Nyameke, the National Democratic Congress (NDC) Parliamentary Candidate for Sekondi in the Western Region, has won the seat for the party for the first time in 28 years.
He polled 14,558 out of the 25,642 total valid votes to beat the incumbent Member of Parliament (MP), Mr Andrew Egyapa Mercer of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), who had 11,084 votes.
The total votes cast was 25,818 out of an expected 41,634, with 176 as rejected ballots.
The Sekondi seat was first won by Mr Albert Bosomtwi-Sam of the NDC in 1992 but switched to the NPP in 1996 by Papa Owusu-Ankomah, who occupied the seat for 20 years.
Mr Mercer took over in 2016 and went for his second term in 2020.
However, in the just-ended 2024 presidential and parliamentary elections, Mr Nyameke made history by snatching the seat, which was considered a safe one for the NPP.
His victory was met by wild jubilation by the people of Sekondi who took to the streets to express their happiness and delight for electing him as the next MP for the area.
In his victory speech, Mr Nyameke expressed gratitude to his party members, supporters and constituents for the confidence reposed in him to represent them in Parliament.
He said: “One thing that I want to tell the people of Sekondi is that this win is for all of us, and we are going to rebuild Sekondi together.”
Mr Ernest Henry Norgbey, the Member of Parliament (MP) for Ashaiman, has secured the mandate to serve the constituency for a third term following his victory in the 2024 general election.
Out of 94,707 total votes cast, the incumbent MP garnered 65,083, representing 68.72 percent of the valid votes cast, surpassing his previous record.
His closest competitor, Mr Justice King Esseiel of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), polled 25,927.
Other contestants were Mr Heymann Emmanuel Kofi-Yesu of the Progressive People’s Party, who managed 295 votes, and independent candidate Mr Kuda Gadafi Adam, 2,261.
In his victory speech, Mr Norgbey assured the constituents of developmental initiatives in the coming years.
“The incoming government will prioritise road construction, sanitation projects, and, most importantly, employment,” he said.
He was declared the winner after hours of collation and firing of warning shots by the police at the St. Augustine Catholic Church collation centre when an electoral officer was accused of tampering with a ballot box.
Party agents who witnessed the alleged act raised an alarm, leading to an angry crowd attacking the individual involved.
As tensions escalated, police intervened by firing a warning shot to disperse the charged crowd.
Calm was swiftly restored, allowing the collation process to proceed to its conclusion.
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Cristiano Ronaldo is being backed to “play deep into his forties” while also smashing through the 1,000-goal target that he continues to chase down.
Mikael Silvestre, who used to work with the Portuguese superstar at Manchester United, believes that. At that time, a bright adolescent was beginning his journey to stardom, but he is now nearing the conclusion of an incredible playing career.
Silvestre expects that to be the case, with the Frenchman telling Boyle Sports of why CR7 can achieve anything that he puts his mind to: “Cristiano Ronaldo will reach 1,000 goals and it will be an incredible achievement. For someone to start their career as a winger and then score more goals than Pele is outstanding, I do believe he will score his 1,000th goal because when he puts his mind to something he achieves it.
“He plays every minute in the Saudi league and scores both from penalties and from open play, he is one of the top performers and I don’t see any downgrade in his performances. He is at a level which I think he can remain at for a long time, I think he will play deep into his 40s and break the 1,000 goal barrier and it will be an amazing achievement.”
Former Manchester United star Louis Saha has advised Marcus Rashford to “show his obsession about football again” and stay focused.
When the Red Devils were in a tight place, Rashford was given the chance to shine off the bench against Arsenal and Nottingham Forest, but he was unable to make an impact, and his lacklustre performances have fed recurring worries about his dedication to the game. The English striker has to “want it” more, according to new United manager Ruben Amorim. Former Red Devils forward Louis Saha has expressed similar worries, pointing out that Rashford needs to show more tenacity and resolve.
Rashford’s attendance at an NBA game in New York during the last international break – after he’d been left out of the England squad again – raised eyebrows and reignited debates about his priorities.
Speaking to Casino Utan Spelpaus, Saha suggested that such distractions hinder his potential: “Marcus has to actually show his obsession about football again. He needs to clearly show that he’s obsessed and that he wants to be the best player. If he’s doing something outside the game, he will understand the consequences.
“You can do whatever you want, travel everywhere you want, but there are consequences. If you are obsessed, you don’t need those distractions. He should be obsessed, which will only improve his game. When you see interviews with athletes that he really admires, they all say the same thing. When they want to reach the top, they train more than anybody. You don’t see them doing anything outside.”
As a high-profile English player representing one of the world’s most followed clubs, Rashford is under a magnifying glass. Saha acknowledged the difficulty of balancing such pressures but urged Rashford to embrace his responsibilities as a superstar.
“He is always under scrutiny. He has to understand. He can’t just ask people to shut up,” Saha said. “They’re not going to do it. They love his name, they love the affiliation with Manchester United, a club that is followed everywhere in the world. Rashford is an English player in one of the most popular football teams in the world. You have to understand that scrutiny is normal because you are a superstar. He perhaps thinks that he’s still very young and that he should be protected from all the scrutiny and left to get on with his football. People don’t see it that way because, in some ways, Marcus is at the stage where he’s got the status which demands more than a normal player. This is the problem, and he has to play with this.”
After an underwhelming 2023-24 campaign, Rashford has also struggled to rediscover his best form in the current season. The forward snapped his eight-match goalless streak by scoring in two consecutive Premier League games against Ipswich and Everton, but was once again an anonymous figure during the defeats to Arsenal and Forest. Overall, he has netted seven times this season with just four of them coming in the English top-flight across 15 appearances.
As Rashford grapples with his dipping form, United face their own struggles. The team’s latest home defeat to Forest saw them slip into the bottom half of the Premier League table again. Their next immediate challenge is a Europa League clash against Viktoria Plzen on Thursday, followed by the Manchester derby against City on Sunday.
Lionel Messi is expected to lose a crucial Inter Miami colleague, as Diego Gomez travels to England to finalise a move to Brighton.
The 21-year-old Paraguayan midfielder will go to England after finishing the 2024 Major League Soccer (MLS) season with Miami. According to The Athletic, Brighton have signed Gomez for £11 million, maintaining their commitment to developing future South American players, a strategy that has already resulted in talents such as Moises Caicedo and Alexis MacAllister.
Gomez is set to officially join Brighton on January 1, 2025, in time for the latter half of the Premier League season. He joined Inter Miami in the summer of 2023 from Club Libertad in Paraguay. He made 28 appearances for the MLS side in the 2024 season and scored six goals across all competitions. Notably, Gomez was also part of the Miami squad that clinched the 2023 Leagues Cup, the club’s maiden major trophy.
Gomez’s international career has been equally impressive. Since his debut in 2022, he has earned nine caps for Paraguay’s senior national team. Earlier this year, he represented Paraguay at the Paris Olympics, captaining the squad through four matches and leading them to the quarter-finals.
The move to Brighton also reunites Gomez with fellow Paraguayan and former Libertad teammate Julio Enciso. He could make his debut as soon as January 4, when Brighton host Arsenal in a high-stakes Premier League clash at the Amex Stadium.
Mr Francis Asenso-Boakye, the incumbent NPP Member of Parliament for Bantama, has retained his seat.
He polled 47,275, out of the 55,546 total valid votes cast, representing 85.11 per cent, to beat his main contender, Mr Simeon Addai Dapaah of the NDC, who secured 8,023 votes, representing 14.44 percent.
This will be Mr. Asenso-Boakye’s second term in parliament after he was elected in the 2020 general elections.
Mr. Bernard Ofori Amanfo, the Returning Officer of the Bantama Constituency Parliamentary Elections, who announced the results said 248 votes cast constituting 0.45 percent were rejected.
He noted that, out of the 84,957 people expected to vote in the constituency, 55,661 came out to cast their votes in the 175 polling stations across the constituency.
This represented 65.4 percent turn-out in the constituency.
The Bantama constituency is one of the strongholds of the NPP in the Ashanti Region and had always retained the seat in every election it had contested.
Lawyer Elizabeth Ofosu Adjare, the National Democratic Congress (NDC)’s incumbent Member of Parliament for Techiman North constituency in the Bono East Region, has retained the seat in the just-ended parliamentary election. She secured 22,513 votes to outpace the New Patriotic Party’s parliamentary candidate, Mr Martin Oti Gyarko who had 19,214 votes, with an independent candidate, Frank Asare obtaining 361 votes.
The National Democratic Congress (NDC) has cautioned supporters against lawlessness, as the party celebrates its Election 2024 victory.
Mr Kofi Okantoa, the Patron of the Bono East Constituency branch of the NDC who gave the caution said the party would not be in the position to defend any supporters who would be arrested by the police.
Speaking in an interview with the media in Sunyani, he urged the supporters to cease from raiding government institutions and vandalising state properties and advised them to remain calm.
Mr Okantoa said with the political victory of John Dramani Mahama as the President-elect, there was the need for the party supporters to focus on ensuring a smooth transition of political power from the New Patriotic Party (NPP) to the NDC on January 7, 2025.
He said calm and restraint remained crucial in maintaining and strengthening the prevailing peace of the country, as the nation prepared for the transition of political power.
Mr Okantoa assured the party executives that they would meet with the supporters to address emerging concerns.
T The Ghana Police Service has denied claims circulating on social media that the New Patriotic Party office in Kasoa has been vandalized.
In a statement, the Police urged the public to ignore the false reports, describing them as unfounded and baseless. “The NPP office at Kasoa has not been vandalised. Please ignore the false claim,” the statement said.
