Some polling station executives of the New Patriotic Party in the Nsawam-Adoagyiri constituency have warned that the party will lose the seat if incumbent MP, Frank Annoh-Dompreh, is made to run unopposed in the party’s primary.
The group calling itself ‘Delegates Against Unopposed’, say moves by the MP and some party officials to bend the rules by proposing an extraordinary congress to acclaim him as the sole contender, is undemocratic.
According to them, the MP and his assigns’ claim of receiving a request from about 400 polling station executives and area coordinators to organise the extraordinary congress is a scheme to frustrate other equally qualified aspirants from challenging him.
They warned that the dwindling popularity of the MP in the recent elections where the opposition NDC nearly unseated the NPP should guide the party hierarchy in ensuring a very democratic process.
The polling station Youth Organiser for R/C Girls ‘B’, Adarkwa Abraham Asamoah, who addressed the press at Nsawam, urged the regional executive committee of the party to disregard the supposed request from party executives as the same cannot be authenticated.
“We wish to inform the Regional Executive Committee and the National Executive Council of the NPP that what Frank Annoh-Dompreh and his agents have submitted to the Regional Executive Committee is fake and should be disregarded,” he explained.
For the group, the fact that the opposition NDC’s popularity keeps soaring in the constituency is enough reason for there to be open contest to allow delegates choose the most viable candidate.
“The NDC currently controls the Nsawam-Adoagyiri Municipal Assembly. The NDC has more Assembly members than the NPP, hence our inability to elect a presiding member. The Nsawam-Adoagyiri Municipal Assembly is currently without a presiding member. The NDC currently has 15 as opposed to 13 for the NPP.
“The NDC has gained more votes than the NPP in the parliamentary elections over the last few years. In the year 2016, the NPP recorded 27,159 votes. This was increased by 7,269 in 2020 to 34,428. In the same period, NDC, which recorded 18,888 votes in 2016, increased its votes by 12,298 to 31,186 in 2020.
“Any serious politician will tell you that if you present the same NPP candidate who is the direct cause of the abysmal performance of the party, you are automatically going to lose the seat. It must be noted that H.E. Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, President of Ghana, who visited Nsawam only once in the 2020 elections, won more votes than Frank Annoh-Dompreh,” he said.