Former Trade and Industry Minister, Alan Kyerematen announced his decision to withdraw from the New Patriotic Party’s flagbearer race, but the party’s Deputy General Secretary says it has not been officially communicated to.
Speaking on PM Express on JoyNews, Haruna Mohammed said the party’s Elections Committee has already called up all the candidates, including Mr Kyerematen for the balloting on Wednesday ahead of the party’s primaries in November.
“We have received this news from the media, though we have not officially received communications from a very senior member of our party, who is Alan Kojo Kyerematen. The party has not received any official communication yet,” he said.
Mr. Mohammed noted that should an official communication be made to the party, the Elections Committee will deal with it as they deem fit.
“We know the due process would be that this statement or a letter would be written to the presidential elections committee, for which a very important event will be happening on Wednesday, September 6.”
“The Elections Committee will be waiting to receive him tomorrow or his assigned or his agent for the balloting. In that state, if he decides to bring in the letter there or information is carried to the presidential elections committee, I think that it will be officially dealt with and communicated to the party.”https://www.facebook.com/plugins/video.php?height=314&href=https%3A%2F%2Fweb.facebook.com%2FJoyNewsOnTV%2Fvideos%2F1006228377354185%2F&show_text=false&width=560&t=0
Alan Kyerematen announced his withdrawal from the NPP’s flagbearer race citing several reasons.
He cited intimidation, assault, violence and a skewed process during the super delegates’ conference to favour one candidate over the others as some of the reasons for his decision.
Mr Kyerematen stated that pronouncements made by some leading members of the party before and after the elections lend weight to his observations.
“After having carefully analysed the results of the said elections, it is absolutely clear to me from events leading to, during and after the elections, that the Special Delegates Conference was strategically and tactically skewed in favour of one particular Aspirant.”
“The level of intimidation of varying intensity, directly and indirectly unleashed on a significant number of Delegates at various Voting Centers across the sixteen regions, is unprecedented in the history of our Party,” parts of the statement read.
He wondered how the party could resort to this degeneration.
“The question I keep asking myself is, ‘How did we get here as a Party in the first place, and how far are we prepared to tread on this dangerous path to self-destruction?”’
Meanwhile, Mr Mohammed has dismissed the claims of favouritism in the super delegates conference noting Alan Kyerematen was “very much aware” of the composition of the delegates ahead of the conference.
“Article 13 1.9 of the party’s constitution describes the composition of the delegates to the super delegates conference. It’s predetermined…and this is very clear, nobody had skewed any delegates conference to an individual,” the Deputy General Secretary said.
