Ghana’s youngest Member of Parliament, Francisca Oteng Mensah has once again set herself apart as a force to reckon with in the country’s political history after leading the Kwabre East Constituency in the Ashanti region to garner the highest number of votes for the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and President Nana Akufo-Addo for the second time running.
In a space of four years, the 27 year-old female legislator, has managed to sweep the record highest number of votes in any constituency for herself and the president, making her Kwabre East Constituency the most popular in terms of support for the NPP.
In the just-ended 2020 parliamentary election, she, against the odd of an independent candidate from the fold of NPP and another keen contention from the National Democratic Congress (NDC), managed to annex a whopping seventy seven thousand, six hundred and thirty five votes (77,635); almost seven thousand votes more than the 2016 figure.
The Kwabre East Constituency also gave President Akufo Addo up to eighty six thousand, four hundred and thirty seven (86,437), stretching his 2016 figure by more than fifteen thousand votes (15000); a never before seen feat in the NPP.
After winning the 2016 elections to enter Parliament at the age of 23 years, her first tenure, which is yet to expire was characterized by massive development in infrastructure and human resources.
Her footprints can be seen in all the communities of the constituency in terms education, health, road infrastructure among a lot of others, winning for her, the hearts of both the old and the young.
It is during her tenure that the Mamponteng Town Roads and those in eight other towns are being constructed simultaneously; she also instituted the Kwabre Anwenie Festival as a means putting the arts and crafts of the Kwabre people on the map.
Having already distinguished herself as the Board Chairman of the National Youth Authority (NYA), it is not surprising that the President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has pledged to elevate her in his next government, following an appeal made to him by Mampontenghene, Barima Saasi Ayeboafo II in 2019.
In his own words, the President said, “I have taken your call for me to adopt her in good fate and I do not take it lightly at all; in the coming elections, she must be upheld again and if God blesses my administration with a second term, Nana, you will see how I will elevate her in your honour.”
In her second term, it promises to get better for the young legislator; it is expected that, this time round, the number of developmental projects and commitment from the central government for the people of Kwabre East would be in tandem with the amount of votes that the NPP gets from that constituency.
