Abstract:
No doubt, the Lawra constituency is one of the strong holds of the National Democratic
Congress (NDC) in Ghana. This is amply demonstrated by the fact that the party has won four
consecutive parliamentary elections since the inception of the fourth republic. However, in the
2008 parliamentary elections, the party lost the seat to the main opposition New Patriotic
Party (NPP) for the first time. This loss shocked not only the NDC party but other keen
political observers. This study sets out to investigate the factors that accounted for the change
in voter behaviour of the Lawra constituents in the 2008 parliamentary elections. The study
was based on a survey conducted for 150 respondents. After the analysis of the survey results,
the findings point to the fact that the change in the voter behaviour was as a result of the
inaccessibility of the NDC incumbent member of parliament (MP) to and neglect of his
constituents, his complacent posture and inability to deliver development to his constituents as
against his main rival NPP candidate who was perceived to be more development oriented,
sympathetic, accessible to the needs of his constituents and aided by his government being
incumbent, he was able to unseat the NDC MP.
