Awuni was elected as the member of parliament for the Binduri constituency of the Upper East Region of Ghana for the first time in the 2004 Ghanaian general elections. The National Democratic Congress won a minority total of 94 parliamentary seats out of 230 seats. He was elected with 9,797 votes out of 19,939 total valid votes cast. This was equivalent to 49.1% of total valid votes cast. He was elected over Yakubu Stephen of the
New Patriotic Party, Barichie Tilata Yakubu of the
Convention People's Party and Aboyella Charles an independent candidate. These obtained 6,216, 199 and 3727 votes respectively of total votes cast. These were equivalent to 31.2%, 1.0% and 18.7% respectively of total valid votes cast. == Personal life and death ==