Unsuccessful aspirants in last Saturday’s parliamentary primaries of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) are yet to come to terms with what could possibly have contributed to their defeat, two days after the exercise.
Gifty Klenam, Rosemond Abrah and Francis Addai Nimo
Yesterday, a number of these disappointed aspirants shared their experiences publicly, with some lamenting bitterly about the outcome of the elections which saw not less than 24 sitting NPP Members of Parliament (MPs) crashing out in their bids for re-election.
Key among them was incumbent MP for Mampong, Francis Addai Nimo, who is tasting his second defeat in a political contest after trying without success to become flagbearer of the NPP last year.
The man could still not tell what exactly accounted for his loss since he was certain victory would smile at him by the close of polls Saturday; but he lost to Ghana’s former Deputy High Commissioner to India, Kwaku Ampratwum Sarpong who had 232 votes.
Addai Nimo, who spoke on Accra-based Citi FM said, “I was surprised by the outcome of Saturday’s election in Mampong. I was hopeful of winning to retain my seat for the next Parliament so it was surprising for me.”
He however promised to continue to work to deliver victory for the NPP in 2016.
Grumblings
MP for Bantama, Henry Kwabena Kokofu, blamed his loss on the alleged sharing of cars by his opponent, Daniel Aboagye.
Kokofu polled 225, while Aboagye got 289 votes; but the former said the decision of the latter to offer cars to all electoral areas in the constituency influenced the delegates.
He therefore decided to wage war against what he termed ‘moneycracy’ in Ghana’s politics.
For Kokofu, who is a former constituency chairman of Bantama, he thought it was a done deal until his main challenger lined up cars for each electoral area in the constituency, swinging the votes in his favour.
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