Yaw Buaben Asamoa, a former New Patriotic Party (NPP) communications director who is now Alan Kyerematen’s campaign spokesperson, claims Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia is taking advantage of government resources and staff to persuade delegates to support and accept him as a candidate for president
According to him, this helped Dr. Bawumia get ahead of Alan Kwadwo Kyerematen, a former trade minister, and Kennedy Ohene Agyapong, the member of parliament for Assin Central, in a poll of NPP delegates conducted by Global InfoAnalytics and Citi TV/Citi FM.
Dr. Bawumia received the most votes (34.8%), followed by Kyerematen (27.9%) and Kennedy Agyapong (12.5%), according to the survey. The other candidates received less than one percent of the vote; 8.9 percent of voters did not disclose their choice, and 15.10 percent were still unsure.
The survey shows that in the event of a runoff between the two candidates, Alan Kyerematen will defeat Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia 38% to 37%. There were 16% of delegates who had not made up their minds and 9% who were unwilling to say for whom they would vote in the event of a runoff.
Mr. Asamoa made these comments during an appearance on Citi FM’s Eyewitness News programme on Thursday in Accra.
“Anybody telling you the Vice President is not campaigning is not telling you as it is. He has government appointees going around offering incentives. They are those who are being threatened to follow through. There are those who are being promised all manner of things.”
“There are teams of government appointees and party leaders going around the country working on his behalf regularly and constantly. So it is not about he himself, he is campaigning seriously with government resources and personnel moving around the country trying to get delegates to accept him as a candidate,” he stated.
Mr. Asamoa stated that people felt obligated to support the Vice President due to the underground campaigning that had been done on his behalf. He also expressed confidence that Mr. Kyerematen would win the primaries and go on to become the next president of Ghana.
“All this is part of the impacts that you see in the polling. The people feel that if I am asked, it will be safer for me to say it that way rather than say it the other way. So there are things happening on the ground,” he continued.
“I am confident that Alan will win this primary and cross on to lead Ghanaians. Delegates are aware about sentiments in the country and know who they want to lead them. We know what is happening on the ground, he is doing appreciably well,” he added.
