The New Patriotic Party (NPP) has ended its Super Delegates Conference with huge surprises as the Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia won massively with a total of 629 votes, representing 68.15% of the votes cast.
Indeed, majority of political watchers believe that his resounding victory is a reflection of the will of the grassroots and will determine the outcome of the November conference leading towards his eventual win as the next President of the Republic of Ghana.
The results from the just ended conference is emphatically an indication of his popularity, a reflection of the support he enjoys from all levels of the party, as well as the outpouring of support he enjoys from the grassroots, which will be overwhelmingly confirmed in the second phase of the election in November, to endorse Dr. Bawumia as the new NPP flagbearer.
Although some opposing forces are claiming that Dr. Bawumia’s victory at the conference doesn’t mater and that those who voted are ‘privileged’ and their position does not reflect the real feeling in the party, interesting analysis of the whole election revealed that only 20 of the super delegates are government appointees who could not vote in case the Party were in opposition.
However, all the rest are people who hold party positions, majority of whom are elected members and everyone who goes through elections in the Party and is able to win is a grassroots person; thus 275 constituency chairmen, 272 regional executives, 137 MPs, 17 national chairmen, among others making it 701 delegates; eclusing about 96 diaspora voters who are all elected officers of the parry.
Therefore 797 delegates out of the 961 are active footsoldiers of the party.
Dr. Bawumia is currently in a commanding lead, making the losers in the race trying to increase their attempts to downplay the effects of the resounding victory for Dr. Bawumia in the Super Delegates Conference.
This probably is a face-saving tactic to keep their fading flagbearership ambition alive until the 2nd Phase of the elections in November.
Results
Ten members of the ruling party have successfully filed to be elected as the party’s flagbearer for next year’s presidential election, and contested in a race to whistle down the number of contestants from 10 to 5, in accordance with NPP’s Constitution.
The Special Delegates Conference, is also a platform through which we will have a clear indication of who-is-who in the contest; the pretenders, the empty noise makers, the saboteurs, the realists and the man of the people!
On Saturday, 961 delegates will have voted in the special exercise, but the specially selected delegates are a representation of key stakeholders of the party, namely constituency, regional, MPs, diaspora and national level leaders of the party.
All 275 Constituency Chairmen of the party voted and in 137 Constituencies where the NPP has sitting MPs, the Constituency Chairmen voted alongside their respective MPS, as well as all regional executives.
These three categories of voters are the biggest blocs that voted representing over 70% of the votes, and these categories; Constituency Chairmen, MPs and Regional Executives, vote to reflect the interests of their respective constituents, the grassroots.
The ten presidential aspirants, in the order in which they appear on the ballot paper are: Mr Kennedy Agyapong, Mr Alan Kwadwo Kyerematen, Mr Joe Ghartey, Mr Kwadwo Poku, and Dr Owusu Afriyie Akoto.
The rest are: Mr Kwabena Agyei Agyepong, Francis Addai Nimoh, Dr Kofi Konadu Apraku, Mr Boakye Kyeremanteng Agyarko, and Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia.
Meanwhile, Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia secured 629 votes (68.15%) of the total votes cast and followed by Kennedy Agyapong who had 132 votes (14.30%).
On the third and fourth positions were: Alan Kyerematen and Dr. Owusu Afriyie Akoto with 95 and 36 votes respectively.
Per the NPP constitution, the number of presidential aspirants was to be reduced from 10 to five hence the super delegates conference.
At the end of the day, Franci Addai-Nimoh and Boakye Agyarko secured 9 votes each.
Howevefr, the party is expected to hold a run-off election for the two aspirants on Saturday, September 2, 2023, to determine which of the two will be part of the top five ahead of the November 4 conference.
Clearly, what happens in the Super Delegates Conference is a reflection of the call of the grassroots, and it is a clear indication of what will happen in the main election.
By Prosper Agbenyega