I, ll not Renege My Promises to Okaikwei North –Theresa Awuni Reaffirms

The Member of Parliament(MP) for Okaikwei North, Hon Theresa Lardi Awuni has expressed gratitude to the people of Okaikwei North, especially the Constituency, Wards and Branch Executives of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) for the confidence reposed on her for affirming her nomination to go unopposed as Parliamentary candidate for the 2024 general elections.

According to her, she would forever remain grateful to them and the entire constituents as it further encourage her to work hard to honour his campaign promises to justify the confidence response in her two years ago.

Hon Theresa Awuni disclosed this to EXPRESSNEWSGHANA in parliament after filing her nomination to contest for the NDC Parliamentary primaries scheduled for May 13, 2023.

Ghanaians went to the polls on December 7, 2020, to elect Members of Parliament for the 275 Constituencies and President.

At the close of polls, Hon Theresa Lardi Awuni pulled 29,281 votes representing 51.07 per cent of the total votes cast, beating her close competitor and then incumbent MP, Fuseini Issah of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) who managed to obtain 27,242 votes representing 47.52 per cent.

This, Hon Theresa, said even though she knew she was going to win the 2020 election, she was overwhelmed by the vote margin, the first-ever in the constituency between the National Democratic Congress and the New Patriotic Party.

Her victory, she said was a result of team hard work by her constituency and branch executives and the polling stations that the NPP has been winning; the NDC was able to break the monopoly in some of those areas, thereby making her victory one of the ever-resounding victory in the history of the Fourth Republic election in the Okaikwei North Constituency.

She recounted that, though she is NDC, many constituents who are not members of her party voted for her, stressing that politics need not be a raging fire destroying everything in its path. Every disagreement doesn’t have to be a cause for total political war.

**HON THERESA, Speaks to EXPRESSNEWSGHANA**

Hon Theresa said she has since justified her election and discharged her primary responsibility in parliament by projecting the needs and interests of the people of Okaikwei North.

She said it was due to that hard work in parliament and in the constituency that she got the overwhelming endorsement by about seven out of eleven Wards in her constituency to go for the primaries which undoubtedly culminated in her going unopposed at the primaries.

The female lawmaker denied that she might have been shielded by the party to go unopposed, stating, “I think me going unopposed at the Primaries is not that there are no people interested to contest with me, but probably some of them have had to abandon the idea because about seven of the Wards have come to openly endorsed me to be their candidate into 2024. So if you are someone who wants to contest and you see such several Wards coming to endorse one, why will you waste your time?”

Notwithstanding, Hon Theresa assured the constituents of her commitment to lobby for their needs to justify the confidence reposed on her on December 7, 2020, adding, “I will not take the needs of the people of Okaikwei for granted. I will work with the little resources available to me as opposition MP to their benefit.”

“As MP for Okaikwei, I look ahead in our unique way, restless, bold, optimistic and set our sights on the constituency and the nation and I know we can be and we must be. I will continue to thank my people of both past and present Constituency, Wards and Branch executives for their contribution to the constituency. I thank the people of Okaikwei North from the bottom of my heart.

She reiterated her commitment to work hard in parliament to ensure Okaikwei North is well represented by articulating their concerns and interest, saying, “It was a social contract between me and the electorate and I can assure them, I will not renege on my responsibility.”

“I have taken the sacred oath in parliament to be MP for the Okaikwei North to serve and not to be served, but the Constituency success story depends not on any one of us, not on some of us, but on all of us,” Hon Theresa added.

She explained that she spend much time with her Constituents, for she believed as MP she should be in touch with her people, be in the lead to talk to them to know about their lives, and listen to them speak about issues that mattered to them as opposed to just being in parliament and shouting, “Yea Yea.”.