Former Trade Minister Alan Kyerematen has denied claims he presented an all-is-well posture to the New Patriotic Party’s chairman, Stephen Ntim, in his last days with the party.
Speaking in an interview on JoyNews, the former NPP flagbearer aspirant stated that he had conversations with Mr Ntim on different occasions and highlighted the many things the party was doing wrong, but, his concerns despite an acknowledgement from the party chairman were left unresolved.
As such, Mr Kyerematen said that not only does he find the chairman’s claims that he had no issues with the party untrue, but also “disingenuous and it’s very unfortunate.”
“He’s a very good friend of mine. You are the chairman of a party. You come to me to ask whether I have any challenges with what is going on. I scope for you all the things I believe have been going wrong. I’ve had personal conversations with him before and he’s aware of that.”
“So he comes, I tell him that look, I’ve complained about these things, you have not done anything about them, so, I’m reinforcing those concerns for your consideration. He actually confirms, ‘well, Alan, you’ve been part of this and you know how our system works’. So for you now to turn around and come and give a public statement about the fact that you came and everything was okay. I find that to be very unfortunate,” Mr Kyerematen said.
Among other things, the now independent presidential candidate noted that he raised issues with the party’s voters’ register despite the donations made to ensure a credible register, the failure to conduct an exhibition for delegates to verify their names and the flouting of the party regulations after the super delegates conference.
“I’ve gone through this promise on three occasions with the current president… But if I’m going into this again and I’m concerned about the voters register, which is the basic document that will guarantee free-fair elections, I make representations, I put this in writing and I’m not sure that the representations that I’ve made in respect of that are being taken seriously.”
“He (NPP Chairman) cannot in all sincerity come and say that he came there and we didn’t have a discussion on all these challenges,” Mr Kyerematen added.
The former Minister resigned from the governing NPP on Monday, September 26.
The presidential aspirant who placed third during the party’s Super Delegates Congress will contest the 2024 election as an independent presidential candidate.
At a much-publicised press conference, he indicated that “my decision to contest as an Independent Candidate will not destroy the Party, but instead provide the Party an opportunity to participate in a Government of National Unity in the future, and avoid the risk of going into opposition with no dividends, in what arguably will be a difficult general election in 2024.”
Meanwhile, despite doubts on whether or not he will succeed, Mr Kyerematen expressed optimism about making a significant difference with floating voters in the 2024 election.
This, he says is because this set of voters do not belong to any political party as they are independent.
According to him, the size of the floating voter which is about 25% is quite significant to make that difference.
“I will make a significant difference with floating voters. I am convinced that because of my disposition in politics, I am the type of candidate that the average floating voter has been waiting for. And if I am a candidate, particularly an independent candidate, then that is a major part of my constituency,” he stressed.
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