The New Patriotic Party will tomorrow elect parliamentary candidates in 100 constituencies where it has sitting MPs.
It will also conclude an ongoing interaction between parliamentary aspirants and delegates in 66 constituencies, 65 of which have unopposed candidates, and the Ayawaso West Wuogon constituency, where it didn’t open nomination at all.
Meanwhile, the governing party has set June 27 to acclaim President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo as the party’s flagbearer for the December general election.
The General Secretary of the party, John Boadu, said in a statement that “the acclamation of the Presidential Candidate together with his Running Mate will be done at a special National Council meeting of the Party to be held in Accra with the media and relevant stakeholders in attendance.”
President Akufo-Addo, the sole candidate who picked the party’s presidential nomination forms, filed his nomination on February 20.
On hold
Tomorrow’s exercise will conclude the selection of all parliamentary candidates, except three, for the 2020 general election.
The three include Gushegu and Dormaa Central where the party’s unopposed candidates, Hassan Tampuli and Kwaku Agyemang Manu, respectively, will be interacting with delegates on July 27, as well as Kwadaso where the party will be having its primaries on Wednesday June 24.
Close to 102,000 delegates will be taking part in tomorrow’s primaries being held across the country.
Hotspots
Some areas expected to be hotspots include Akwatia, Nkawkaw, New Juaben South and Akyem Oda, all in the Eastern Region.
In the Akwatia constituency, three men, Bernard Owiredu Donkor, Ernest Yaw Kumi and Robert Boateng Ampratwum, are contesting the sitting MP and the only woman in the race, Mercy Adu Gyamfi.
Ama Sey, as Ms Adu-Gyamfi is popularly called, ousted then vibrant NDC MP for the area, Baba Ahmed Mohammed Jamal, in the 2016 election. She polled 21,433 votes, representing 57.21 per cent of the valid votes.
Nkawkaw is the constituency with the highest number of candidates in the Eastern Region. Two former MPs and the current MP are battling three other aspirants for the seat. Mr Kwakye Darfour, MP for the area; Okerchiri Kwabena Adusa, the constituencies three times MP; and Seth Adjei Baa, a former MP; are contesting with Joyce Opoku Boateng, Deputy Chief Executive Officer of Middle Belt Development Authority, who is eyeing the seat for the third time; one Joseph Frimpong, and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Ghana Publishing Company, David Asante.
The New Juabeng South election is also expected to be fiercely fought. There has been series of allegations and counter allegations among supporters of the two main contenders. The Chairman of Parliament’s finance committee, Dr Mark Assibey-Yeboah, who currently occupies the seat, is battling it out with the Executive Secretary of the Ghana Free Zones Board, Michael Okyere Baafi, for the second time.
In the Akyem Oda constituency, though there are three candidates, the contest is between William Agyapong Quaittoo, the incumbent, and former broadcaster and the CEO of the Community Group of Hospitals, Alexander Akwasi Acquah.
Pundits have suggested that this year’s primaries are too close to call for any particular candidate in any of the constituencies.
Others
In the Greater Accra Region, for instance, the contest between the Minister of State in charge of Procurement and Deputy Majority leader, Adwoa Safo, and Ghana’s High Commissioner to India, Mike Oquaye Jnr, is expected to be the talking point. Constituencies such as Tema East and West and Okaikwei North and South, all in the Greater Accra Region, are also expected to produce waves of tension.
Some seats in the Ashanti Region such as Bantama, Adansi Asokwa, Asante Akyem South and Central, Manso Nkwanta, Nhyiaso and Ejisu also promise to be ‘fire works’.
In the Adansi Asokwa constituency, the incumbent MP, KT Hammond, is being challenged for the first time in his 20 years in Parliament in an internal election. He is being challenged by Samuel Binfoh Dankwa, a former President of the National Union of Ghana Students (NUGS). Sammy Binfoh, Chief Accountant at the Ghana Publishing Company Limited, appears to be giving the MP a good run for his money, after all attempt to get him disqualified proved futile.
The contest at Bantama is also under close watch by observers, as Francis Asenso Boakye, Deputy Chief of Staff, is tippled by many pundits to defeat Daniel Okyem Aboagye, the incumbent MP.
In the northern sector, the Nanton constituency, in the Northern Region, is expected to produce some heat. The contest is between the party’s former National Nasara Cordinator, Kamal-Deen Abdulai, and the sitting MP, Hardi Tufeiru Mohammed.
The contest at Lawra, in the Upper West Region, currently occupied by Anthony Abayifaa Karbo, Deputy Minister of Roads, is also expected to produce some friendly fires, as well as Navrongo Central, in the Upper East Region, where the Minister of Aviation and the sitting MP, Joseph Kofi Adda, and the Upper East Regional Minister, Ms Tangoba Abayage, face each other.
Source: Daily Statesman
