Ahead of the New Patriotic Party’s Super Delegates’ Conference on Saturday, spokesperson for the Alan Kyerematen campaign, Yaw Buaben Asamoa, is rubbishing claims that Vice President and flagbearer aspirant, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, will automatically benefit from a transfer of political favour by the party.
Supporters of Bawumia’s candidacy argue that the political favour that was bestowed on the then-candidate Akufo-Addo in the 2014 party primaries where he won 94% of votes will be transferred to the vice president who was then Akufo-Addo’s running mate.
But Yaw Buaben Asamoa argues that no such thing will happen.
He is convinced that the major reason why the party had strongly favoured then candidate Akufo-Addo was because they believed it was his turn to lead the party.
Speaking on Joy FM’s Top Story on Friday, he argued that Dr. Bawumia has not earned that favour considering he is a relatively new face in the party in comparison to Alan Kyerematen who has been with the NPP since its inception.
He signalled that Alan Kyerematen in the upcoming primaries, will be rewarded handsomely for his long service to the party with the flagbearership position.
“I have heard my good friend Sammi Awuku and his other speakers say that in 2014 then candidate Akufo-Addo, now his excellency the president, made 94% and they’ve used the percentages gap to describe what will happen now as a straight transfer of political favour from Nana to his vice president; trying to equate Nana’s feat then.
“But what they forget is that it was built on the party’s determination to ensure Nana became president at all costs before anybody else because the party had determined that [it was his time], and therefore until he became president, nobody else would. That is what those percentages reflect.
“After 16 years, the party will change faces. Nana is no more in the race so what happened in 2014 has no parallel to what is going to happen tomorrow. Whoever wins tomorrow doesn’t mean the person is going to win November 4 necessarily. It means five people are going to be put forward on November 4 and what November 4 says is the real deal. That is the true election,” he said.
NPP goes to the polls in the Super Delegates polls to whittle down the number of persons seeking to be elected as presidential candidate for the 2024 general election. Ten candidates are lining up for the race, which will retain five for another round of voting in November to elect the substantive candidate.