Campaign to get Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia elected as the flagbearer of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) for the 2024 general election is said to be intensifying across the country.
Among those rooting for Dr. Bawumia with a massive campaign in the Northern Region is the 2020 Sagnarigu parliamentary candidate of the governing party, Madam Felicia Tettey.
The MP hopeful over the weekend organised a series of meetings with the NPP delegates in her constituency to canvass support for the Vice President to lead NPP for the 2024 presidential and parliamentary elections.
Madam Felicia Tettey in her interaction called on the electorate to vote for Vice President Bawumia not because he is from the north or a Muslim but for his unquestionable competence, hard work and exemplary loyalty to the party.
According to her, Dr. Bawumia against all odds, has always stood firm for and with the party through thick and thin, adding it will not be fair for party delegates to overlook the vice president’s contribution to all the successes of the Akufo-Addo government.
“I told them the need to vote for him not because he’s a northerner but because he is competent; they should look at his suffering against all odds, he stood for the party, no single constituency he has not visited to work and ensure a successful election”, Madam Felicia Tettey told NPP delegates.
The former Northern Regional Second Vice Chairperson stated that with Dr. Bawumia as flagbearer of the NPP, the party can win the 2024 polls.
Meanwhile, the momentum is growing stronger for the Vice President in the northern region with many NPP stalwarts canvassing support for him to succeed President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.
Madam Felicia Tettey after the 2020 parliamentary elections became a household name in Sagnarigu, which is one of the safe seats for the opposition NDC in the northern region.
She significantly improved the parliamentary votes of the NPP from 7,888 in 2016 to 26,434 in the 2020 polls.
She also snatched 44 polling stations from the NDC incumbent MP, Alhaji Alhassan Bashir Fuseini which was unprecedented in the political history of the constituency since the NPP had never won a single polling station.
NPP presidential primaries
The governing NPP is yet to open nominations for its presidential primary to elect the flagbearer for the 2024 general election.
In a statement issued a few days ago, the NPP General Secretary, Justin Kodua Frimpong indicated that the party will be issuing a statement hopefully after a meeting on 31st January, 2023 on the way forward.
Ahead of this however, some NPP bigwigs have expressed their desire to contest for the NPP top post.
They are Alan Kyerematen, former Minister for Trade and Industry; Ken Agyapong, MP for Assin Central; Dr. Owusu Afriyie-Akoto, former Minister for Trade and Industry; and Kyerematen Agyarko, former Minister for Energy.
The rest are Dr. Kofi Konadu Apraku, former Minister for Regional Integration under President John Agyekum Kufuor; Joe Ghartey, former Minister for Railways Development; Kwabena Agyapong, former NPP General Secretary; and Mr. Francis Addai Nimo, former MP for Mampong.
Special electoral college
Article 23 (9) of NPP’s constitution stipulates that “Where there are more than five contestants for the nomination as the Party’s Presidential Candidate, a Special Electoral College shall cast their votes by secret ballot for the first five contestants to be shortlisted”.
It added that the Special Electoral Colleges shall comprise of the following delegates:
i. the National Council
ii. the National Executive Committee
iii. the Regional Executive Committees
iv. all Members of the National Council of Elders
v. all Party Members of Parliament
vi. three (3) representatives of each of the special organs of the party
vii. past National Officers
viii. three (3) representatives each from every external branch.
ix. Founding Members during the registration of the party at the Electoral Commission
x. all Party car bearing Ministers
