Director of Elections for the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Evans Nimako, has revealed that the party is all set to elect a candidate to contest for the Assin North by-election today.
According to him, party delegates will vote today, Jun 7, 2023, to decide the fate of the two aspirants vying to represent the party in Assin North on June 27. He indicated that all electoral area coordinators, polling station executives from the 99 polling stations are present to go through the process to select for the party the candidate the party has to sponsor for the by-election.
“What is happening today is an internal arrangement to get the constituency to conduct special delegates conference which is being attended by all the constituency executives… So, the party is set to go, engagements so far have been very successful and we are looking forward to annexing the seat comes 27th of this month…”
Evans Nimako
Mr Nimako stated that the two aspirants, Fredrick Gyimah Kyei Amoah and Charles Opoku., have already been vetted by the vetting committee chaired by the National 1st vice chairperson, Mr Dankwa Smith. He highlighted that the party is very confident that whoever gets endorsement will definitely win.
“We’ve engaged a lot of stakeholders in Assin North, we are very convinced in minds that looking at the party’s ground in the constituency, what happened in 2020 is not going to happen again come Tuesday, 27th. Definitely, the New Patriotic Party is going to win back the Assin North…”
Evans Nimako
Press release By NDC has no basis, NPP remains focused
Commenting on the tense exchanges between the Electoral Commission and the NDC’s communications officer, Sammy Gyamfi, Mr Nimako stated that the release by Mr Gyamfi has no basis and it must therefore not be given any consideration at all.
He explained that the NPP is yet to conduct its internal election to select its candidate, owing to this, there’s no point in picking out one person who has not been elected yet to vilify.
“… We are not sure who is going to become the candidate for the party, and you make the strongest of all allegations that there’s arrangement to transfer his votes from one constituency into the constituency. Really, it beats my imagination but that is NDC for you.”
Evans Nimako
The NPP’s director of election emphasized that the 1992 constitution, article 94, is very clear on the requirement of prospective parliamentary candidates, which include being a registered voter, more than 21, a Ghanaian and of sound mind. He indicated that the other consideration is the candidate must have hailed from the place or stayed there for five years or ten years within which the elections are going to be conducted.
“I am therefore surprised as to why and what is informing the NDC to have come out with such an allegation. I don’t see the basis and I don’t think we should give it that attention. The NDC will think that we will lose focus from what we are supposed to do. The EC will conduct the election. For us as New Patriotic Party, we are mindful of all the laws that govern the conduct of elections.”
Evans Nimako
Justifying his stance, Mr Nimako ciricized the NDC for representing the party with somebody in 2020 elections, who was legally not qualified.
“… They are here accusing the New Patriotic Party of trying to import somebody who is not a voter in the constituency. I cannot really appreciate it and the EC has issued a response to Sammy Gyamfi that their candidate who contested in Kumawu constituency in the just ended by-election, is a registered voter in Ayawaso West Wuogon constituency. When they were doing that, we didn’t raise any issue. So, I would want us to leave them to their game and by Tuesday, 27th of this month, they will see who the people of Assin would want to represent them in parliament…”
Evans Nimako
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