There is pressure within the New Patriotic Party for at least two aspirants in the NPP Ayawaso West Wuogon parliamentary primaries to step down.
Deputy Finance minister Charles Adu Boahen who is son of the party’s first presidential candidate Prof. Adu Boahen and deputy Chief Executive of the National Youth Authority Richard Joojo Obeng who is also a businessman.
Party bigwig favour Lydia Alhassan, mistress of the late MP whose death has triggered the bye-election and former head of campaign logistics Ato Williams.
But the party’s intelligence point to Richard Joojo Obeng affectionately called Rocky is most likely to win the primaries set for January 2019, a source at the national headquarters has revealed.
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Charles Adu Boahen is also believed to hold the ability to pull an upsetting victory.
The race to choose the next NPP Parliamentary candidate for the bye-election has therefore become a fight between the choices of the grassroot versus the choice of critical powerbrokers.
There is a belief among the political forces with government that any decent aspirant presented in the bye-election will win because the Ayawaso West Wuogon is a safe NPP seat.
Armed with this belief, there is considerable pressure on Charles Adu Boahen and Rocky Obeng to step down for two other favoured candidates.
The deputy Finance minister and the deputy NYA CEO are yet to pick nomination forms. But some polling station executives have signalled their readiness to pick forms for them awaiting their endorsements.
They insist Mr. Obeng who is deputy Chief Executive of the National Youth Authority consistently takes care of the grassroot and has won their respect and devotion.
A Klottey Korle constituency situation is appearing to repeat itself. That was in 2016 when a more popular candidate Mr Valentino Nii Noi Nortey was pressurised to step down in favour of the highly-politically connected Philip Addison in the parliamentary primaries for the seat in the Greater Accra region.
He defied the pressure but lost the primaries which was organised twice. Mr Valentino Nii Noi Nortey after proving defiant is said to have damaged relationships with the party hierarchy.
His political future has since nose-dived.
Mr. Obeng is seen within the party as respectful, a unifier within the constituency which has several camps while Adu Boahen continues to enjoy the legacy of his father and founding member of the party.
Sources close to the party say they both could step down to keep these endearing political attributes intact and preserve the political peace in the constituency which could be rattled if the contest turns fierce.
The party closes nominations for the primaries in less than 24 hours.