Alan Kyerematen, a former Minister of Trade and Industry, announced his withdrawal from the New Patriotic Party’s flagbearer race on Tuesday, September 5, however, the party’s Deputy General Secretary claims to have not been informed officially.
On PM Express on JoyNews, Haruna Mohammed claimed that, in preparation for the party’s primaries in November, the Elections Committee has already summoned up all the candidates, including Mr. Kyerematen, for balloting on Wednesday.
“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 stated that the Elections Committee would handle any formal communication with the party in the manner it saw suitable. “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 agent, or his agent for the balloting. In that state, if he decides to bring in the letter there or if information is carried to the presidential elections committee, I think that it will be officially dealt with and communicated to the party.”
In a statement released Tuesday night, Alan Kyerematen explained why he was no longer running for the NPP’s flagbearer slot. His choice was based on several factors, including the fact that the super delegates meeting was rigged to favor one candidate over the others through intimidation, abuse, and violence.
To back up his claims, Mr. Kyerematen cited statements made by some prominent party members both before and after the elections.
“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 different voting centres across the sixteen regions, is unprecedented in the history of our party,” Parts of the statement reads.
He questioned why the party had allowed this deterioration. “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?”
In the meantime, Mr. Mohammed has disputed allegations of favoritism in the super delegates conference, pointing out that Alan Kyerematen was “very much aware” of the makeup of the delegates before 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.
