With just a day to the New Patriotic Party (NPP) Super Delegates Conference, only a single NPP MP has thrown his weight behind Kennedy Agyapong, it has been revealed.
The ruling New Patriotic Party has 137 MPs, and most of the MPs wield considerable influence at the grassroot levels within their respective constituencies, which makes their support for a candidate crucial, in any election involving delegates.
However, Kennedy Agyapong, the Member of Parliament for Assin Central Constituency, has received the support of only 1 out of the the 137 NPP members in Parliament, in his bid to be elected flagbearer of the NPP for next year’s presidential election, a source within the Majority Caucus of Parliament.
In percentage terms, this represents 0.7% support from his colleagues in Parliament.
The source, an influential member of the majority, who prefers to remain anonymous, said since Kennedy Agyapong started his flagbearership campaign, only a single MP from the majority supports him.
“He is our colleague in Parliament and we are all from the same party, but have you seen or heard a number of MPs supporting him? Only one member of the majority side (from the Central Region) supports him since he started campaigning to be elected flagbearer,” the source revealed .
One of the biggest blocks for the Special Delegates Conference is the MPs, and together with others including, constituency chairmen, regional and national executives, will vote for only one person each on Saturday, to select the top 5 contenders from the 10 who have filed, for the next stage of the contest in November.
With Kennedy Agyapong receiving only a single support from the MPs, the source expressed surprise at the MPs low support among the groups he comes from, after being in Parliament for nearly two decades.
“He has been a Member of Parliament for more than 3 terms. One would have thought that he would have obtained support from his colleague MPs. But amazingly only a single NPP member of parliament has thrown his support behind the Assin Central MP. This means that Kennedy Agyapong will obtain a single vote from his colleague MPs, who know him so well,” the source added.
The overwhelming majority of the NPP MPs, over 125 of them, have publicly declared support for Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia, and a few others, out of the rest, have declared for former Trade Minister, Alan Kyerematen.
Asked why the MP is not receiving the support from the MPs, the source explained that the flagbearership position is the ultimate position in the party, and whoever is elected should be a man everyone in the party can trust, with proven track record, both in human relations and competence, hence the MPs decision to back Dr. Bawumia.
“Kennedy has been our colleague in Parliament over the years and some of us know him very well more than many out there. This is the flagbearership of our party, and we are selecting somebody who will go there and appeal to Ghanaians to be elected President. You need someone with a proven excellent human relations; you need someone who respects eberybody; you need someone with a lot of maturity, humility and modesty. And most importantly, you need someone with a lot of ideas to help our party and the country.
“Among the 10 people, we all know who has these traits, and it is the reason almost all of us, with the exception of a few others, are supporting Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia.
“As for Kennedy, it is completely strange that he does not have the support of his colleague MPs. Perhaps, he needs to conduct a lot of introspection to find out why.”