A former National Organiser of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP), Sammy Awuku, has stated that delegates of the party will not be swayed by money to choose the party’s presidential candidate for the 2024 polls.
As the NPP votes in the presidential primary on November 4, there have been allegations about the influence of money by some aspirants.
Allegations of financial inducement were rife during the party’s super delegates’ conference that trimmed the number of aspirants to five, until the resignation of former Trade Minister Alan Kyerematen, leaving four contestants.
The four are the Vice President, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, Assin Central MP, Kennedy Agyapong, former Agric Minister, Dr Akoto Afriyie, and a former MP, Francis Addai-Nimo.
While aspirants have often been accused of inducing delegates to sway votes in their favour, they have mostly denied with the explanation that the monies are largely given to delegates to take care of their transportation and food.
Speaking on PM Express on Wednesday after three delegates of the NPP confessed to receiving some amounts on PM Express, Mr. Awuku, who’s a member of Dr Mahamudu Bawumia’s campaign team said such payments do not inform who leads the NPP at any point in time.
According to him, considering the huge number of over 200,000 delegates voting in this election, no aspirant can realistically influence all of them to sway the votes in his favour.
“Tonight’s conversation has been revealing speaking to the delegates. The whole picture that has been painted that it is the biggest economic activity that happens on that voting day cannot be true, cannot be accurate” Mr Awuku told the Host, Evans Mensah.
“You did use Ledzokuku just for an example, and you are talking about in excess of 1,600. A candidate cannot even give beyond that 400 or 500 cedis even per delegate because the figures will be huge. And doing that across 276 constituencies, unless that candidate is only looking at only one constituency and not moving beyond that, but this is a mass election.”
According to Mr Awuku, the delegates are aware that their choice on voting day will be determined by who has the capability to win political power for the party and steer the national affairs competently rather than who pays the highest amount.
“First of all, the expectations must be watered down; and I am happy that the delegates themselves know that reality sets in, and money will not be a key determinant in deciding who they should vote for.”
[embedded content]The one-time National Youth Organizer of the NPP said the party has never given its leadership to the highest bidder at any point in time.
The NPP has never selected its leaders based on who can pay. As I keep telling you, Paa Grant was the one who financed the preparation of this UGCC thing and bankrolled it, but he never elected himself to be a leader of the party. J.A. Kufuor was not a rich man, Akufo-Addo was not a rich man, K.A. Busia was not a rich man, and Victor Owusu was not a rich man, so the party delegates at any point in time do not make a mistake.”
“And listening to them [The delegates] today, they were very emphatic. The two that I happened to have listened to, said they are looking at people who can help the party to win political power. Political parties are set up to win political power to implement the policies and programmes to advance the course of the nation.
“There are two options; either you remain a pressure group or you remain a political party that is capable of winning an election. And once you do not win an election, the rest of it are press conferences that you can organize because you are not in government, you can only share your opinion” he argued.
“But a serious political party should be looking at drilling down, do the polling and market research to understand the battle ground constituencies, the weak areas and the strongholds of the party and that of the opponent, so based on that you go into an election period, to elect candidates that will fit into this puzzle, so, I do not think for a minute that people will vote based on how much they are going to get. That will be n an insult to the delegates of our party” he noted.
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