The newly-elected National Youth Organizer of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) Salam Mustapha, has said said winning elections is not about influencing delegates with money.
He said it is about executing top notch election strategies.
When asked for his views on the allegation of vote buying during the just-ended delegates conference of the NPP on Saturday July 16, while speaking in an interview with Berla Mundi on the New Day show on TV3, Tuesday July 19, he said “I shudder to disagree, elections are won on strategy.
“It is not the money, we have seen incumbent governments losing elections which are thought to be well-resourced.”
He further expressed disappointment in the injunction that was placed on members of the Tertiary Students Confederacy (TESCON) from voting.
The NPP received injunctions stopping its student wing, TESCON and local proxy voters from casting their ballots in the delegates conference on Saturday July 16.
This affected over 300 students from voting.
TESCON executives expressed their disappointment over the situation.
A statement they issued after the polls announcing a withdrawal of their service from the party said “[NPP leadership] do not recognise us as the intellectual wing as it has always been professed by the party because for you to bus intellectuals from various regions for them to travel miles to the capital city of the country, risking their lives just to disenfranchise them without any reason is just disheartening.”
“Until we see the said injunction, the one who placed the injunction and the reason for the injunction and also give us positive assurance to settle as soon as possible the ambiguity on TESCON Representations during Regional and National Conferences in the next Annual National Delegates Conference otherwise we will advice ourselves accordingly.
“Allocation of stands were made for all delegates with the exception of TESCON at Accra sports stadium which clearly indicates that the party did not factor us and never value us in the planning of the whole event,” the statement.
Reacting to this, Salam Mustapha said “To break the 8 is going to take a lot of effort and the youth wing must be strong force to work with.
“Personally, I was very upset and sad because I was going to get a lot of votes form them, I had done so much work with TESCON. I got a lot of calls from a lot of them shedding tears and it broke my heart.
“I want to plead with them to calm down, I understand their plan, lets handle this well. We will definitely resolve the issues.”
By Laud Nartey|editors.3news.com|Ghana
