Stephen Ntim
The Presidential Election Committee of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), says the National Executive Council (NEC) of the party are yet to take a decision for a run-off between Boakye Agyarko and Addai Nimoh, following a tie between the two at the just ended Special Delegates Conference organised by the party to elect five presidential aspirants to contest the party’s primaries in November this year.
Speaking at a press conference at the party’s Asylum Down headquarters in Accra yesterday, a member of the Presidential Election Committee and spokesperson for the committee, Alexander Afenyo Markin said, “The Presidential Election Committee has made certain recommendations, and such recommendations are contained in a document we are forwarding to NEC through to National Council. As you may be aware, the General Secretary has put out a public notice that NEC and National Council are going to meet on Wednesday, for now let’s wait for NEC and National Council to meet, and I am quite sure that the final decision regarding the way forward on the decision to be taken after the outcome of the elections on run-off will be communicated to the public.”
According to him, though the committee understands that elections could sometimes trigger emotions, it is expected that the aspirants act within the confines of the law.
He, therefore, maintained that members, aspirants and agents who wage ‘war’ against the party, especially by attacking any leading member, or any leader merely for disagreeing with a particular issue or because there was an infringement they consider to be wrong, will be sanctioned.
He said although the committee has not officially received any compliant from any party member, neither have they received any official complaint from any of the aspirants, the committee has taken it upon themselves to invite all the aspirants for engagement based on events on social media since Saturday when elections were held across the country.
Mr. Afenyo Markin also advised members of the party to be mindful of their conduct as members and desist from casting aspersions, insinuations as well as making unfounded allegations, and work in unison as members of one party with common aspirations.
“It is important for us to state that this is a family affair, we have set down rules of engagement, and we have also put in place a mechanism to ensure that grievances are heard and responses given. We therefore expect all aspirants who have grievances to channel such grievances through the laid down rules. We as election committee have this mandate to look into all matters of concern, we therefore call on agent assigns and principals themselves to respect such rules,” he added.
He indicated that apart from engaging the aspirants in a meeting, one of the aspirants who raised specific issues related to the elections would also be invited by the committee to listen to some specific aspects of the issues.
He further called on all aspirants and members of the party, representatives, and assigns to channel their grievances using the appropriate forum as discussed during the committee’s meetings with them before the elections, in order not to undermine their integrity as well as that of the party, adding that none of them would also be penalized in accordance with the party’s constitution until they have appeared before them for hearing.
Meanwhile, Kwame Owusu, campaign manager for Kennedy Ohene Agyapong, has vehemently denied claims by Ashanti Regional Chairman of the party of providing information to Kennedy Agyapong, following a viral video on Saturday threatening a ‘showdown’ with President Akufo-Addo and Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia.
He said, “I want to put it straight that Chairman Wontumi lied. Chairman Wontumi came to where I was as an agent in the Ashanti Region at the Law Faculty. He came there at 12pm, so how could he have heard that I was the one who was reporting the matter to Hon. Ken when even the incident was out before he came to the premises for the voting? So it is quite untrue.”
He also assured delegates of Kennedy Agyapong’s commitment to continue to work in the interest of Ghanaians and contest for the primaries to be elected as the flagbearer, while congratulating him for placing second in an election where the Vice President is perceived as the establishment candidate with huge government appointees behind him.
By Ebenezer K. Amponsah