NewsAdwoa Safo will run for Dome-Kwabenya again, 19 months after she said she wouldn't
The former MP and minister says she will seek the NPP ticket for 2028. Her own record in the seat is the first thing voters will look at.
Sarah Adwoa Safo says she will contest the New Patriotic Party's parliamentary primary in Dome-Kwabenya for the 2028 election. In a statement dated 22 October 2026, she said she had "indicated my intention to pursue opportunities beyond the constituency", but that "upon deeper reflection" there was "no greater honour" than representing its more than 200,000 constituents.
"Dome-Kwabenya is home. It has always been home," she said.
From three terms to an empty seat
Safo won Dome-Kwabenya for the NPP in 2012, 2016 and 2020. She served as Deputy Majority Leader and as Minister of State in charge of Public Procurement, and in January 2021 she became Minister for Gender, Children and Social Protection.
Later in 2021 she took leave and left for the United States. She has said she lost a baby in childbirth and that her eldest son became seriously ill. In April 2022, Speaker Alban Bagbin referred her to Parliament's Privileges Committee for missing more than 15 sittings without permission; the committee counted about 40. It was her own side, the NPP Majority, that pushed for her seat to be declared vacant. On 28 July 2022, President Akufo-Addo revoked her appointment as minister.
The seat was never declared vacant. She returned to Parliament in November 2022 and apologised to the party leadership in September 2023.
The vote that followed
In January 2024, Safo lost the NPP primary as the sitting MP. Mike Oquaye Jnr won with 1,194 votes. She got 328.
In the December 2024 general election, the NDC's Faustina Elikplim Akurugu took Dome-Kwabenya, the first NDC win since the seat was created. After a disputed re-collation, the Electoral Commission declared her the winner by 298 votes. In February 2025, the NPP's own constituency executives publicly blamed Safo for the loss.
"It will take my father"
On 20 March 2025, Safo told JoyNews she would not run for the seat again. "I won't. It will take my father to change my mind," she said, adding that she was looking at the Speakership. Her father, Apostle Dr Kwadwo Safo Kantanka, died in September 2025.
Safo survived an attack in June 2026. That case is before the courts.
The NPP has not yet announced its timetable for the 2028 parliamentary primaries.
Anyone can change their mind, and she has every right to run. But Dome-Kwabenya remembers the empty seat, the lost primary and the 298 votes. A comeback has to start by answering for that record, not by talking about the votes she won before it.
- Citi Newsroom: Adwoa Safo announces decision to contest Dome-Kwabenya seat (23 Oct 2026)
- Rainbow Radio: Adwoa Safo U-turns (23 Oct 2026)
- Graphic Online, Citi Newsroom and GNA: appointment revoked (28 Jul 2022)
- Citi Newsroom and GNA: Privileges Committee report (Jul 2022)
- Citi Newsroom, GNA and MyJoyOnline: 2024 NPP primary result (27 Jan 2024)
- Citi Newsroom: EC declares Elikplim Akurugu MP-elect (31 Dec 2024)
- 3News and GBC: "I won't" interview on JoyNews (20 Mar 2025)
- GNA and Ghanaian Times: death of Apostle Dr Kwadwo Safo Kantanka (Sep 2025)
Every factual line in this story is checked against at least two independent sources, unless the text says it comes from one report.