The Minister for Works and Housing and Member of Parliament for Bantama, Francis Asenso-Boakye has charged delegates of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) to vote massively for Vice President, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, in the upcoming delegates conference, slated for August 26, 2023.
The Bantama MP believes that voting for Dr. Bawumia as the flagbearer of the NPP defies the notion that the party is for the Akan people.
He intimated that the opportunity has come for the party to give people from other tribes the chance to lead in order to encourage people who are not Akan in the party to work assiduously.
Speaking in an interview with Oyerepa TV, Francis Asenso-Boakye noted that Dr. Bawumia has been instrumental in the success of the party winning power hence the time has come for the delegates to reward him by electing him as the flagbearer of the New Patriotic Party (NPP).
"I have said that within NPP now there is a good opportunity for us to send a strong signal to the rest of the world particularly Ghanaians, that the NPP is a mass party but not just, excuse me to say ‘Akan party’. So if someone works hard enough for the party to a certain extent and wants a position, we should send a strong signal that the person who is not an ‘Akan’ can also lead. That is why I am of the view that Dr. Bawumia will be a well-placed candidate for the party in 2024," he said.
Background
10 people would be contesting in the NPP presidential primaries which are slated for August and November 2023.
A super delegate conference would be held in August 2023 to reduce the number of contenders to five while the main primaries would be held in November 2023 to choose the party’s presidential candidate for the 2024 elections.
The ten candidates include Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia; a former Trade Minister, Alan Kyerematen; Kwadwo Poku, an energy expert; Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Joe Ghartey; a former Minister of Food and Agriculture, Dr. Owusu Afriyie Akoto; a former General Secretary of the NPP, Kwabena Agyei Agyepong; MP for Assin Central, Kennedy Ohene Agyapong; a former MP for Offinso North, Dr. Kofi Konadu Apraku; and a former Energy Minister, Boakye Agyarko.
