Hackman Owusu-Agyemang, the chairman of the National Council of Elders of the governing New Patriotic Party, has assured NPP members that no candidate will be given special treatment in the run-up to the party’s national delegates’ congress.
The NPP’s vetting committee ended its mandate last week after successfully vetting all ten aspirants who are hoping to lead the party in the 2024 election.
Francis Addai-Nimoh, a former MP for Mampong, was the last to appear before the committee.
Nine other aspirants – including Vice-President Mahamudu Bawumia, Alan Kwadwo Kyerematen, a former trade and industry minister, Boakye Kyeremateng Agyarko, a former energy minister, and Kwabena Agyei Agyepong, a former NPP general secretary – appeared before the nine-member vetting committee, led by Professor Aaron Mike Oquaye, a former Speaker of Parliament.
The five remaining aspirants are Kennedy Agyapong, the MP for Assin Central, Kofi Konadu Apraku, an economist, Owusu Afriyie Akoto, a former minister of food and agriculture, Joe Ghartey, a former attorney general and minister of railways development, and Kojo Poku, an energy expert.
No inbuilt bias
Speaking on the Asaase Breakfast Show on Thursday (20 July 2023), Owusu-Agyemang said the rules will not be varied to suit any particular candidate.
“I assure you, let [the aspirants and their supporters] relax: the constitution is … there. So are the rules and regulations for the elections, which have also been crafted,” he said. “So, at all times, fair application of the rules of procedure and regulations will apply.”
He said, “It will not be varied to suit anybody. I just want to assure them that they may relax. But, for now, the best thing is for them to trust that we have done it several times since 1992, and we are not going to do anything untowardly that will favour one person or the other.
“If, by their own assessment, they are most popular they are entitled to [say] that and convince the people. Nobody is going to coerce us [the National Council],” Owusu-Agyemang said.
Listen to Hackman Owusu-Agyemang in the audio clip attached below:
Reporting by Fred Dzakpata in Accra
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