Front-runner of NPP SEC polls will win Nov 4 presidential primaries says Miracles Aboagye
Miracles Aboagye said his analysis is supported by precedent in the NPP as far as special electoral college polls is concerned
Dennis Miracles Aboagye, spokesperson for the campaign team of the Vice President of the Republic, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia has stated that whoever emerges as the front-runner in the New Patriotic Party (NPP) special electoral college (SEC) exercise on Saturday 26 August 2023, will go on to win the party’s presidential primaries on Saturday 4 November 2023.
Speaking in an interview on the Asaase Breakfast Show (ABS) today, Friday, (25 August), Miracles Aboagye said his analysis is supported by precedent in the New Patriotic Party as far as special electoral college polls is concerned.
“The way our party (NPP) is structured, what will happen on Saturday (26 August) is a precursor of what will happen on November 4 and nothing will change it. Whoever wins this Saturday (26 August) elections is the one who will win the November 4.
“The idea of super delegates was to aggregate the views of the party people into smaller numbers so that we can sieve these candidates before we present them to the larger number” Dennis Miracles Aboagye said.
“That is why if you look at the delegates, those who the constitution mandates to vote [in the special electoral college], they are representatives so they are not coming to vote based on their own views.
“The same way we have 275 people who go to Parliament to go and make laws for 30 million of us, that is the same way this close to 1,000 [delegates] are coming to express the views of the larger numbers they represent. Whichever percentage we [team Bawumia] gets on Saturday (26 August), is going to be even bigger on November 4” he added.
“In any case, why would anybody say, he cannot convince a 1,000 delegate to vote for him but can convince over 200,000. Initially, they [the contestants] said they will win the special delegates, then they said, they will force a run off so all 9 of them can form an alliance against Dr. Bawumia.
“Strangely, in the past few days, they seem to be throwing in the towel and singing a new tune trying to discount the relevance of the special delegate and now saying, 1,000 delegates won’t vote for them but 200,000 will. Let’s wait for the Nov. 4 and see Dr. Bawumia win even bigger than he would on 26th August” Miracles Aboagye further stated.
First SEC polls
The NPP first trigged Article 13 (9) of its constitution which is on “Election of Presidential Candidate” in 2014 ahead of the 2016 presidential and parliamentary elections to elect the party’s flagbearer.
The 2014 special electoral college polls had seven hundred and forty (740) delegates and seven (7) contestants (Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, Alan Kwadwo Kyerematen, Francis Addai-Nimoh, Stephen Boateng, Konadu Apraku, Joe Ghartey and Osei Ameyaw).
2014 SEC outcome
After the special electoral college polls, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo polled 598 votes representing (80.78%), Alan Kwadwo Kyerematen polled 59 votes representing (7.98%). Francis Addai-Nimoh and Joe Ghartey both secured 22 votes each which was equivalent to (2.98%). Osei Ameyaw on the other hand polled 16 votes (2.17%) with Stephen Asamoah Boateng, getting 13 votes and Konadu Apraku placing 7th in the race with 10 votes.
Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo after taking the first spot in the special electoral college polls, went on to win the actual presidential primaries in all 275 constituencies in the country garnering 117,365 votes, representing 94.4% of the total votes cast.
Alan Kwadwo Kyerematen in that contest, polled 5,925 votes which represented 4.74% percent of the valid votes cast. Francis Addai-Nimoh secured 1,035 votes representing (0.83%) percent. Joe Ghartey and Osei Ameyaw declined to contest in the main presidential primaries even though they qualified to do so after the special electoral college polls.
Reporting by Wilberforce Asare in Accra
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