Ashanti Regional Chairman of the ruling New Patriotic Party, Bernard Antwi Boasiako popularly known as Chairman Wontumi has given a hint that the party is considering expansion of the current delegates album across board.
Mr Boasiako said he has had a conversation with the General Secretary of the party, Justin Frimpong Kodua to expand the current album in order to avoid issues which tend to disintegrate the party.
“To be sincere, I am going to fight. I have talked to the General Secretary and he agrees with me that every card bearing member of our party be allowed to vote in all our internal elections.”
“He has accepted and I know there are a lot of people in our party who also support this” Wontumi said in an interview on his radio station.
This is not the first-time conversation on the expansion of the NPP delegates album has come up. In December 2021, the ruling party held its annual delegates congress at the Baba Yara Sports Stadium in Kumasi, a number of proposals dwelling on the expansion of the party’s album came up.
Former MP for Manhyia North Constituency, Collins Owusu Amankwah proposed that all former MPs be made part of the electoral college, among other many proposals suggesting an expansion of the party’s album across board.
In an interview with TV3’s William Evans-Nkum at the time, a member of the Constitutional Review Committee of the party and former Deputy Attorney General, Joseph Dindiok Kpemka said “we have received the proposals and we are going to work on them, they can only be adopted by Congress.”
Over the years, party members have complained about the removal of their names from the delegates list. Such concerns have grown into apathy.
In the lead up to the Ejisu by-election three-time member of Parliament for Ejisu Constituency, Kwabena Owusu Aduomi contested as an independent candidate.
In an exclusive interview with TV3’s William Evans-Nkum, the former lawmaker said “I am doing this to teach the NPP a lesson, somebody will put together a delegates album at 2:00am and the party leadership will sit aloof? The real party supporters want Aduomi to lead, the reason I am contesting as an independent candidate.”
Several concerns have also been echoed from aggrieved party supporters over their names being expunged from the electoral college.
Ashanti Region has recorded many of such cases. In the lead up to the 2020 parliamentary elections, the current 2nd Deputy Speaker, Andrews Asiamah, left the party to contest as an independent candidate based on the same issue.
Kwasi Amofa Esq, a member of the legal team that represented the NPP during the 2012 elections petition case at the Supreme Court is contesting as an independent candidate for the Bekwai seat in December polls; he contested Joe Osei Owusu (1st Deputy Speaker) as independent candidate in the 2020 parliamentary election.
Some have blamed leadership for supervising what has been christened as ‘mafia tactics.’
Wontumi says he has never been involved in who becomes a delegate. “Why should people blame me for the election of polling station officers when I was never involved in the process?”
Bernard Antwi Boasiako has posited that all card-bearing members of the party must be allowed to vote in future internal elections by the party.
“What stops card bearing members of the NPP from voting to decide who becomes their parliamentary candidate; who becomes a member of the constituency or national executive? He queried.
