HOW NPP ELECTION WAS RIGGED…To suit Akufo-Addo

It’s almost a week after the New Patriotic  Party (NPP) held its Delegates Conference to elect new officers to run the party for the next four years; but signals picked by Today offer ample evidence about how the entire process was rigged to favour Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, a leading contender in the NPP’s presidential candidacy.

The flawed process, Today’s investigations established, was meticulously organised by some party chiefs to suit by proxy the presidential candidature of Nana Akufo-Addo with the primary motive being that, if certain officials were elected for key positions that would help shore up the candidature of the party’s failed presidential candidate in the 2008 elections.

Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo

It became clear in the days leading to the NPP conference that the contest was likely to have direct bearing on the chances of Nana Akufo-Addo and Alan Kyerematen, the two leading contenders in the NPP presidential race. So prior to the conference the whole exercise was reduced to a shadow bout between Nana Addo and Alan.

Come the conference day, as Today discovered from findings, delegates who were perceived to be supporters of Mr Alan John Kwadwo Kyerematen were frustrated to the extent that some of them could not vote at the conference.

The modus operandi was to deliberately frustrate the Alan slate from getting key positions in the NPP executive. Certain party chiefs therefore refused “the Alan delegates” accreditation and a few ones who dared and challenged officialdom for their accreditation had a hectic time demanding what in their opinion should have been their political rights.

The others who could not stand the hassle and bustle gave up and refused to vote. Originally, delegates were advised to pick their accreditation at their various constituencies, but rather strange to narrate that arrangement did not work in all regions.

Some delegates who could not get accreditation from the constituencies and regions went to the Baba Yara Sports Stadium, the venue for the NPP delegates conference, and as the party’s last minute directive indicated, to pick up their accreditation but realised rather too late that some individuals in the party had played the prangs on them.

It became impossible for them to get accreditation to enable them to vote at the conference. Most of them became spectators just as the others who had come to witness the exercise.

In some instances too, the list of delegates were changed at the last hour. This, according to information gathered by the paper, particularly occurred in the Brong Ahafo Region which is one of the many strongholds of Mr Stephen Ntim, the leading candidate on the Kyerematen slate.

Today found out that the delegates list of Brong Ahafo TESCON, the student wing of the NPP, was changed moment before the conference. Names of some delegates who were originally billed to vote were taken away from the party’s master list at the conference.

And although that generated heated argument and furore, party chiefs in charge of the conference stood their grounds and accepted the altered list much to the chagrin of the original delegates who had been selected weeks before the NPP conference.

Although some of the party’s executive members in the Brong Ahafo region intervened and urged the party’s leadership to rely on the original list, their plea was ignored by the national leadership of the NPP.

Some delegates who were denied voting told Today that they reported the matter to a leading member of the NPP who contested the party’s presidential nomination last year, but he failed to act.

“It was later that we got to know that he (the former aspirant) was a member of the Akufo-Addo 2012 team and might be supportive of the orchestration,” a denied delegate told Today.

Some contenders who were on the slate of Alan K were denied accreditation and had a hectic time getting to the Baba Yara Stadium because of their perceived stance and although their billboards and other posters had been displayed all over the country prior to the conference, they were nearly ditched at the last minute, but for their heroics in fighting the Nana Akufo-Addo mafia group.

Two of the Alan’s men who suffered most in the grand plot were Mr Omari Wadie, who contested for the position of 1st National Vice Chairman and Stephen Amoah, a contestant for the NPP’s Youth Organizer position.

Stephen Amoah, who obviously for the sake of party cohesion and unity, refused to go public on the issue admitted in private to some leading party members that something fishy went on at the NPP conference which saw the results massaged to suit certain candidates.

The Alan group, Today gathered, was also outmuscled in the opulent show of raw cash, which party insiders disclosed was provided by the Nana group to their preferred candidates who vied for key party positions at the conference.

And so at the last hour when virtually the pockets of most candidates were dry, the Nana candidates, led by Jake Obetsebi-Lamptey, had a field day dishing out money and other gifts to woo delegates at the last minute.

The paper further discovered from delegates that they were given GH¢200 and a bag of rice by the Jake’s team when he met delegates a day before the congress. Other aspirants like Dr Charles Wereko-Brobby and Felix Owusu-Agyapong who could not measure up to the money spending were either taunted or insulted by delegates when they attempted addressing them a day before the conference.

IN-DEPTH REPORT: STEPHEN DARKO