The New Patriotic Party (NPP) strongman and Minister of Food and Agriculture, Bryan Acheampong, has made a passionate appeal to all aspirants in the forthcoming NPP presidential primaries to withdraw from the race and support the candidature of the vice-president, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, to lead the party as its flagbearer in the December 2024 general election.
Dr Acheampong argued that the outcome of the party’s special electoral college (SEC) on Saturday 26 August 2023 was an emphatic statement by those delegates who voted that the spirit of the NPP is behind Vice-President Bawumia to lead the party into the 2024 presidential and parliamentary elections.
Speaking during a one-on-one interview on Ekosiisen on Asempa FM today (Tuesday 29 August 2023), Bryan Acheampong said: “What happened on Saturday (26 August) with the super delegates’ conference has rendered the 4 November primaries moot.
“The NPP has a spirit, and it’s inevitable that Dr Mahamudu Bawumia will win massively [if the 4 November presidential primary takes place]. My wish is for all the other aspirants to withdraw and save the party all the stress.
“The outcome of the special electoral college poll was not much of a competition. If one candidate [Dr Bawumia] had 67 to 69%, even if you add the percentages of all the remaining nine aspirants together, it will not amount to 50% of the votes cast,” the NPP MP for Abetifi said.
“The facts are the facts. I just do not see how the vice-president, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, will not be elected the flagbearer of the New Patriotic Party, I don’t see it.
“Those people [the nine remaining aspirants] who give up now will be remembered by the party, because we need time to close ranks, we need time to avoid opening of cracks, so that we can forge ahead and prosecute the 2024 campaign,” Bryan Acheampong added.
Vice-President Bawumia took a giant step towards becoming the presidential candidate of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) on Saturday (26 August) by securing a landslide victory in the party’s special electoral college.
The certified results declared by the Electoral Commission show that Bawumia won 629 votes (or 68.15% of the total valid votes cast across the 17 centres), to top the pack.
The MP for Assin Central, Kennedy Agyapong, came second, polling 132 votes (14.3%), followed by the former trade minister Alan Kyerematen, who had a total of 95 votes (10.29%).
The former agriculture minister Owusu Afriyie Akoto picked the fourth spot, having garnered 36 votes (3.9%), followed by Francis Addai-Nimoh and Boakye Agyarko, who won nine votes each (0.98%), leaving them to contend for the fifth position in a run-off.
Nine hundred and fifty-five delegates voted at 17 polling centres across Ghana to whittle down the number of candidates from ten to five. There will be a final primary ballot on 4 November among the top five NPP contenders to select a flagbearer for the 2024 elections.
Source: Ghana/DenkyiramanRadio/919 FM
