The New Patriotic Party NPP has been warned to rescind from their decision to protect some incumbent Members of Parliament (MPs) in the ongoing parliamentary primaries in the Ashanti region to avoid losing the 2020 general elections.
A Researcher and a lecturer at the Planning Department at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Dr. Steven Takyi, giving the warning argued that, the move by some regional executives to shield incumbent MP’s could affect the vote fortunes of the party in the 2020 general elections.
There have been a growing tension in the Ashanti Region over claims that the leadership of NPP are frustrating potential parliamentary aspirants ostensibly to stop them from contesting sitting MPs.
Reports are that some aspirants in some constituencies in the Ashanti region including Subin, Asokwa, Bekwai, and Kwabre East are unhappy about excuses by the executives who have closed party offices to prevent them from picking forms.
However, Dr. Steven Takyi, speaking on Otec FM’s morning show ‘Nyansapo’, hosted by Captain Koda on Thursday, February 6, 2020, was of the view that, the Ashanti region, been the party’s stronghold, if the National Executives do not intervene, loss of votes in the Ashanti region will be decisive factor in losing the 2020 polls.
The lecturer observed “that first time MPs were giving the chance to contest others, hence it would be a poor decision to stop others from contesting them, and should the votes in the Ashanti region, been the strong of the party, drop, definitely the party stands the chance of relinquish the seat of government to the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC)”.
“Each aspirant is coming on board with their own numbers, and so therefore, preventing them from contesting could bring voter apathy on the part of their followers,” he warned.
Source: Ghana/otecfmghana.com/Jacob Agyenim Boateng
