Nomination forms
Challenger to Joe Osei Owusu is not NPP member – Bekwai NPP explains refusal to give nomination forms
There were contrasting fortunes for parliamentary aspirants seeking to contest the New Patriotic Party (NPP) primaries at Bekwai in the Ashanti Region.
The party at the Bekwai constituency tossed out Kwasi Amofa-Agyemang as party big wig Joseph Osei-Owusu filed his nomination on Tuesday.
On the sidelines of threats by party supporters to switch camp and vote for the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) should Amofa-Agyemang be denied the party’s nomination forms, the Bekwai Constituency executives have refused the aspirant a nomination form.
Their reason? The man seeking to represent them in Parliament was not qualified to contest the party’s primaries.
But Mr Amofa-Agyemang’s supporters are not taking it kindly, as they accuse the incumbent MP, Joe Osei-Owusu, and the party’s Constituency Chairman, Adu Gyamfi, of conspiring to prevent their preferred candidate from contesting.
The supporters see this as a move to execute desires of some NPP party leaders, including Majority Leader, Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu. Mr. Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu has called for the protection of some key NPP legislators, including himself.
Ashanti Region NPP Parliamentary primaries : some aspirants lament inability to pick forms
Mr Amofa-Agyemang had been to the party office on countless occasions, but could not get forms even though he had funds ready for the purchase. He sought the intervention of the regional office and climaxed it with a protest at the national headquarters of the party with his supporters.
NPP parliamentary forms play catch me if you can with challengers to bigwigs
After Mr Osei-Owusu’s nomination, Constituency Chairman, Mr Adu Gyamfi, let the cat out of the bag. He said Mr Amofa-Agyemang was not a card bearing member of the NPP
“As for Amofa, I have said it, he is not a party member and you cannot give a form to someone who is not a party member,” he stated emphatically in an interview with Kumasi FM’s Elisha.
According to him, Mr Osei-Owusu and another NPP member, Charles Acheampong, were those being considered for the primaries
Meanwhile, Mr Osei-Owusu refuted claims that he feared competition. According to him, he is ready for anyone from the party who has plans to unseat him.
“I am not by anyway intimidated by competition. I have always been ever ready,” Mr Osei-Owusu noted. “Bekwai constituency has never been bereft of competition.”