Former General Secretary of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) Kwabena Agyei Agyepong has served notice he table a suggestion with the National Council to allow both Boakye Agyarko and Francis Addai-Nimoh to contest the November 4 Presidential Primary.
Mr Agyei Agyepong, who could not go past the first round, says the number of aspirants wanted, five, is not too different from six if the two are allowed to contest.
He said he will suggest this for the ultimate consideration of NPP’s Presidential Elections Committee.
After the Super Delegates’ Conference of the party on Saturday, August 26, Mr Agyarko and Mr Addai-Nimoh were joint-fifth after they polled nine votes apiece.
The Committee, through chairman Rev Prof Aaron Mike Oquaye, consequently announced a run-off on Saturday, September 2 to separate the former Energy Minister and the former Asante Mampong lawmaker.
But speaking on TV3‘s Midday Live on Monday, August 28, Kwabena Agyepong insisted the two aspirants must be allowed to save the party cost in running the run-off.
He said he will table this before the Council’s meeting on Wednesday, August 30.
“The National Council is meeting on Wednesday, I am a member of it. If I have the opportunity, I will suggest that they should allow them to join.
“Six is not different from five, so if they want to continue [or] they make that decision to continue with the battle, then having six is not. . .
“After all, the whole idea behind pruning down was because of the massive numbers that we saw in 2007, when I was the youngest of the 17 aspirants and this time we had 10, which with some of us, in our view, we could have allowed us to go straight on.”
He stressed: “I think they should be allowed since they are sharing the fifth position.”