A political science lecturer at the University of Ghana, Dr Kwame Asah-Asante, has said that former Trade Minister Alan Kyerematen will be the kingmaker in the 2024 general elections as an independent presidential candidate.
Dr Asah-Asante stated that Mr Kyerematen who resigned from the NPP to enable him to contest as an independent candidate is influential in the Ashante, Eastern, and Central regions.
This makes him likely to push the elections into a second round, he said.
“If he and the smaller parties are able to galvanize about 1.5 million votes, it will push the elections into the second round,” Dr Asah-Asante said on the Key Points on TV3 on Saturday, September 30.
He added “His absence will create the difficulties for them [NPP]. Alan can be the kingmaker.
“He himself knows that he is not going there to win, he is going there to rock the boat of the NPP.”
Mr Kyerematen announced his resignation from the NPP on Monday, September 25, making it the second time he resigned from the NPP after he first did so in 2007 but later returned.
He said at a press conference in Accra that he came to the realisation that his contributions were no longer needed in the party hence his resignation.
“After carefully analysing the results of the Super Delegates Conference, I issued a Press Statement on the 6th of September 2023, declaring my intention to exit the process leading to the Presidential primaries. In the run up to the Super Delegates Conference, the National Council of the Party made some of the most controversial and contentious decisions in the history of the Party.
“They rejected a petition signed by nine out of the ten aspirants, requesting for the Super Delegates Conference to be held in one location, as well as allowing each Delegate to the Conference to nominate five persons, instead of one, in line with the provisions in the Party's Constitution. In my humble and considered opinion, the decisions of the National Council were both unmeritorious and unconstitutional,” he said.
He added “To make matters worse, it was absolutely clear as indicated in my Press Statement of September 6th this year that, the Super Delegates Conference was strategically and tactically skewed in favour of one particular aspirant. The level of intimidation and monetization that characterized the Conference is unprecedented in the history of internal elections of our Party.
“The subsequent decisions made by the National Council to vary the rules of procedure for the run-off, arising from the Super Delegates Conference, in direct contravention of both the Constitution of the Party and the Guidelines issued by the Presidential Elections Committee, will go down in history as a travesty of justice, and a demonstration of high handedness by the highest decision-making body of the Party, second only to the Annual Delegates Conference.
“I joined the New Patriotic Party at the very beginning of its establishment as a Founding Member, believing in its core values and the long-standing traditions of its antecedents, predicated on fairness, equity, probity, accountability, and transparency. I have devoted the best part of my professional career to serving the Party, and I still believe in the vision of the founding fathers of the Party. However, the NPP as it exists now has very little resemblance to the Party that I joined in 1992 and helped to nurture. The Party has been hijacked by a selected group of Party leaders and elders, government appointees, “behind the curtain power brokers” and some unscrupulous Party apparatchiks.
“It was my fervent wish to use the vehicle of the Party to bring my God given talents, experience, and knowledge acquired both locally and internationally over a period of 46 years, to serve our dear nation, Ghana at the highest level of executive authority.
“It is abundantly clear to me, that my services and contributions to the Party are not appreciated, and that my continuous stay in the Party will create further tension and division, which is an exact replay of circumstances that led to my decision to resign from the Party in 2008.
“Under the circumstances and given the context provided, I wish to use this platform to announce that I am honourably resigning with immediate effect from the New Patriotic Party to contest for the high office of the President of the Republic of Ghana in the 2024 General Elections, as an Independent Presidential Candidate. ”