Top 3 Young Promising Parliamentarians in Ghana.
1. Francisca Oteng Mensah
Francisca Oteng Mensah is a member of parliament of the New patriotic party for the Kwabre East Constituency and was known as the youngest parliamentarian of the fourth Republic of Ghana at the time of her election in 2016.
She is the daughter of Mrs. Joyce Oteng and Dr. Kwaku Oteng, a doctor and a businessman who is the C.E.O of the Angel Group of Companies. Francisca was a second-year law student at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology at the time she contested the elections in 2016.
She won her parliamentary seat for Kwabre East Constituency in the Ashanti Region of Ghana, after the 2016 general elections. Francisca is a Christian and fellowship with Assemblies of God.
2. Dakoa Newman
She was born on 6 July 1985 into a Christian home and hails from Akropong and Osu respectively.she completed Wesley Girls senior high school, Cape Coast. She is a chartered project Management professional and a chartered risk management professional certified by the project management institute, USA(2017.
She also holds a Bachelor’s Degree in political science from the University of Ghana, Legon and a Master’s Degree program and project management from the University of Warwick, United Kingdom.
She ran for the New Patriotic Party seat in Okaikwei South in June 2020. Newman received 440 votes to defeat sitting Members of Parliament Arthur Ahmed and Nana Fredua, while the two others received 327 and 27 votes, respectively.
She won the 2020 December parliamentary elections for the Okaikwei South Constituency. She was declared the winner by getting 40,393 votes representing 60.82% against her closest contender Abraham Kotei Neequaye of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) who had 26,019 votes representing 39.18%.
3. Vincent Assafuah
Vincent Ekow Assafuah was born in Kumasi, Ghana, to Polykarp and Paulina Assafuah. He attended Martyrs of Uganda Junior High School before enrolling in St. Huberts’ Seminary in Kumasi to pursue General Arts.
Assafuah has a bachelor’s degree in political science from Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), as well as a master’s degree in economic policy and a master’s degree in development finance from the University of Ghana (UG), Legon. He also graduated from Central University with a Bachelor of Laws (LLB).
He went on to earn a Master of Arts in Public Relations from the Ghana Institute of Journalism. He is pursuing a Ph.D. in Public Administration and Public Policy at the moment.
After failing to win the USAG presidential election, Assafuah ran for and won the position of National Service Personnel Association (NASPA) National President during his National Service. He served in that position for one year.
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From 2015 until 2017, he worked as a special assistant to the Second Lady, Samira Bawumia. In 2017, he served as the New Patriotic Party’s acting Deputy Communication Director (NPP).
After the New Patriotic Party came in power in January 2017, He was subsequently appointed as the head of public relations at the Ministry of Education in 2018. He is also a part-time lecturer at Dominion University College.
After incumbent Anthony Akoto Osei announced his intention not to run in the 2020 election, he ran for the New Patriotic Party seat for the Old Tafo Constituency in June 2020.
With a total vote of 299, Assafuah won the primaries against the 5 other contenders. His closest contender Dr. Louisa Serwaa Carole got 133 whilst the others which included Prince Odeneho Oppong got 90, Archibald Acquah had no votes, Emmanuel Obeng and Lord Inusah Lansah had 44 votes and 27 votes respectively.
He won the 2020 December parliamentary elections for the Old Tafo Constituency. He was declared the winner with 42,616 votes representing 74.55% against his closest contender Sahmudeen Mohammed Kamil of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) who had 14,405 votes representing 25.20%.
By: George Owusu