By Dennis Peprah
Odumase (B/R), July 19, GNA – The New Patriotic Party (NPP) is not a chieftaincy institution to dwell on succession plan in choosing presidential candidate, Mr Yaw Dabie Appiah Mensah, a leading member of the Party in the Bono Region has stated.
He said the NPP had grown from its ancient ideology of “succession model” to a more participatory democratic Party and therefore slammed members opposing the choice of Vice President Alhaji Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia as the Party’s flagbearer for the Election 2024.
As the Party’s presidential primaries to elect a flagbearer gather momentum, Mr Mensah, a former NPP organiser in the former Brong-Ahafo Region, said “our political party is not a monarchy which has some particular royals or families destined to lead.
” Speaking in an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA) at Odumase in the Sunyani West Municipality, he said if allowed “politics of ethnicity and tribalism” would tear the NPP apart and narrow its political fortunes in the next general election.
“Some party people claim it’s not the time for the Vice President Bawumia to lead the NPP in 2024. In fact, I am always saddened because such words and comments are unhealthy political talks that can create disunity and affect our fortunes,” he stated.
That notwithstanding, Mr Mensah, said “some of these unsavoury comments directed against Dr. Bawumia as born out of jealousy”, saying “as we speak now, Dr. Bawumia is the best option for NPP in the next election”.
He hoped the leadership of the NPP would provide an equal and fair playing field for all the Party’s 2024 presidential aspirants to contest the primaries, irrespective of their ethnic and tribal backgrounds. “We can’t dirty ourselves in the public and expect to break the eight.
No matter the individual’s background, we must allow the Party structures and systems to work and give everybody a fair playing field and treatment to contest the primaries,” Mr Mensah stated. So far, the Party’s Vetting Committee has cleared 10 aspirants who filed nominations to contest the primaries to lead the Party in the Election 2024.
They Mr John Alan Kwadwo Kyerematen, Mr Kwadwo Poku, Dr. Bawumia, Mr Boakye Agyarko, Mr Kwabena Agyei Agyapong, Mr Kennedy Ohene Agyapong, Dr. Kofi Konadu Apraku, Dr. Owusu Afriyie Akoto, Mr Joe Ghartey and Mr Francis Addai-Nimoh.
GNA