Former Member of Parliament (MP) for the Tamale Central constituency, Inusah Abdulai Fuseini, has alleged that the Special Delegates Conference recently held by the New Patriotic Party (NPP) was skewed in favour of Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia who swept 68% of the votes.
He claimed that the delegates were whipped into line to vote for Dr Bawumia, who has become the party’s establishment candidate for the 2024 polls.
Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia won the party’s Special Delegates’ Conference on August 26, with a total of 629 votes, representing 68.15% of the votes.
He was followed by Kennedy Agyapong who had 132 votes (14.30%). On the third and fourth positions were: Alan Kyerematen and Dr. Owusu Afriyie Akoto with 95 and 36 votes respectively. Francis Addai-Nimoh and Boakye Agyarko secured 9 votes each.
Speaking to Selorm Adonoo on Citi TV’s news analysis programme, The Big Issue, the former legislator, who is a member of the opposition National Democratic Congress said, “I think that the Super Delegates’ Conference, did not live up to its name of providing a free and equitable level grounds for persons who were interested in leading the party to emerge freely from the system. The system was raped in favour of the establishment candidate, who is Dr Mahamudu Bawumia. It appears the party had an establishment candidate and people were whipped in line to support the establishment candidate.”
He raised concerns about the level of intimidation perpetrated against agents of some aspirants who were against the candidacy of Dr Bawumia.
“There was some level of intimidation in the events leading up to the Super Delegates’ Conference. We heard about someone who was given a dirty slap in the North East region because he was representing the interest of a delegate. You could see some level of violence and intolerance. Clearly, there was some machination to get one candidate to emerge.”
Furthermore, he asserted, “There were a lot of inducements to get the outcome, violence was perpetrated against persons who clearly stood against the establishment, and the outcome clearly doesn’t represent the generality of the party. They might have to work at that and see how they unite their party.”
Touching on Alan Kyerematen who came third in the race, he mentioned the influence of money on the voting process, which affected the votes of Mr. Kyerematen who lacked the resources.
“There was an inundated use of money in the election. You see Alan Kyerematen’s performance? This time he’s not an establishment candidate. He couldn’t raise money to support his campaign as he did in the 2007 primaries of NPP. He was even called Alan Cash, you know the name is dead, he doesn’t have cash, so clearly you could see the role of cash in this election.”
The party was expected to hold a run-off election for Francis Addai-Nimoh and Boakye Agyarko, on Saturday, September 2, 2023, to determine which of the two will be part of the top five ahead of the November 4 conference.
However, the party cancelled its plans to conduct the run-off after Boakye Agyarko refrained from the run-off, citing unconstitutional rules.
