The Vice-President of the Republic and candidate for the presidential ticket of the New Patriotic Party, Mahamudu Bawumia, has called on his supporters and spokespeople not to respond to anyone who insults him during the NPP’s internal exercise to elect its presidential candidate for Election 2024.
According to Dr Bawumia, after the NPP’s internal polls, the party will have to regroup and unify in order to fight to retain power in 2024, and so any insults, disputes and internal tensions will go a long way to limit the NPP’s ability to stand up to its actual “enemy” – the opposition NDC – in next year’s general election.
He also appealed to his fellow aspirants to endeavour to tone down their rhetoric in order not to give the NDC access to materials they can use against the party after the NPP’s internal campaign process is over.
“I was raised by both President Kufuor and President Akufo-Addo, so I can work with the children of both leaders of our great party. I do not like divisions and segmentations in the NPP.
“Let us be mindful of the words we speak during this internal campaign. Let us not insult anyone during this contest because after the contest, we will have to unite to fight for political power,” said Dr Mahamudu Bawumia as he addressed NPP delegates in the Ashanti Region on Tuesday 18 July 2023.
“I have told all my spokespersons not to insult or respond in equal measure to anyone who decides to insult me. That will be completely unacceptable to me. Let us concentrate on convincing the delegates on why they should choose me over all the others,” he said.
Veep’s campaign tour
In the past two weeks, the vice-president has been campaigning and meeting with party delegates in the 47 constituencies in the Ashanti Region.
Before his Ashanti Region tour, the vice-president held similar meetings with NPP delegates in all 34 constituencies of the Greater Accra Region.
Race for flagbearer
Ten candidates have filed their nomination forms and have been cleared to contest in the first phase of the two-part process which will lead to the election of a flagbearer for the NPP in the run-up to the 7 December 2024 presidential and parliamentary elections.
The first phase, the super delegates conference, will see delegates vote to select five candidates out of the ten who have successfully filed to contest for the flagbearer’s slot on 26 August 2023.
The five who will be selected will then contest for the NPP flagbearership on 4 November 2023, in a nationwide poll that will be held in all 275 constituencies in Ghana.
Content by: Wilberforce Asare
