THE New Patriotic Party (NPP) was expected to take a definitive decison on the Suhum NPP primary last night.
This follows the failure of the delegates for the fifth time to elect a parliamentary candidate to contest the Suhum constituency parliamentary seat in the Eastern Region.
Mr Lord Commey who disclosed this to the Daily Graphic in a telephone chat yestarday expresssed the hope that the party would be able to find a lasting and acceptable solution in electing an aspirant for the constituency.
At the primary held at the Suhum Community Development Vocational Institute on Monday, the two candidates, the incumbent MP, Mr Frederick Opare-Ansah and Mr Bryan Acheampong, polled 51 votes each, resulting in record run-offs.
At the previous two primaries, held on July 2 and June 25, this year, at the residence of the District Chief Executive for Suhum-Kraboa-Coaltar, both candidates had 51 votes each, ending in the first and second run-offs.
The primary, which was kept under control by heavy police presence drawn from Accra, Suhum, Koforidua and Kyebi, however witnessed some unpleasant development from the onset, when about 80 young men, allegedly invited from Nima by the sitting MP, engaged the supporters of Mr Acheampong in a scuffle.
In the ensuing scuffle, one of the Nima youth was said to have been bitten on the finger, while a supporter on the side of Mr Acheampong was slashed on the face and chest with an axe by one of the Nima boys and was rushed to the hospital for treatment.
Notwithstanding such unfortunate incident, the tension-filled, unpredictable election went on smoothly.
As soon as the results were announced by an official of the Electoral Commission, delegates backing Mr Opare-Ansah, went into wild jubilation, singing “Ye ani abre, ye ani abre koo”, meaning “we are wild”.
However, delegates on the side of Mr Acheampong expressed their dismay at the frequent run-offs, which they described as a headache facing them and the party and the people of Suhum-Kraboa-Coaltar District.
They, therefore, requested the national executive of the party to take another look at the party’s constitution, which allowed sitting MPs to cast their votes during primaries at the expense of other contestants.
According to them, it was as a result of Mr Opare-Ansah, as a delegate, who is allowed to vote that the primaries had been ending in run-off, since his votes chances in all the three primaries rose from 50 to 51 to tie with their candidate.
“Mr Acheampong will simply have been the obvious chose of the people should the incumbent MP be disallowed to vote”, they added.
To ensure fairness to all the contestants, they also called on the national executive of the party to conduct an election for the seven Nankese Polling Station Chairmen, who they claimed were not eligible to exercise their voting rights “as they have not been elected as Chairmen of their respective polling stations”.
The seven, who had been among the 102 delegates to cast their votes at the previous primaries, are said to be in the camp of the sitting MP.
Speaking to the press after the election, Mr Acheampong also called on the national executive of the party to prevail on the sitting MP to resign his positions before being allowed to exercise his voting rights.
This, he noted, would ensure fairness to all contestants during the primary.
In his opinion, Mr Opare-Ansah, as an ex-officio, was not the favourite of people of Suhum, saying “out of the 102 delegates, 51 had consistently voted for me while the remaining 50, comprising 40 delegates and 10 constituency executives, have supported Mr Opare-Ansah”.
It is strongly alleged that all the constituency executives of the party, except the Women’s Organizer, are in the camp of the incumbent MP.
In this regard, Mr Acheampong, believing he would be declared the presumptive winner of the primary, expressed his staunch preparedness to contest the primaries at all times till a winner would be declared.
“If the national executive decides to impose a candidate against the wish of the people, this will trigger chaos in the constituency”, Mr Acheampong cautioned.
Speaking to the press, the Eastern Regional Executive of the party, including its Secretary, Mr Alec Agobo, gave the assurance that to prevent any confusion, the national executive would desist from imposing a candidate against the wish of the people.
He, therefore, called for tolerance and patience while the national executive took steps on the next action.
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