Nii Noi Nortey, a parliamentary aspirant of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) in the Korle klottey constituency has condemned the class system being created in the consitutency.
He said whiles the party has always reached equal opportunities and aspirations for members, irrespective of one’s ethnic grouping, social and economic standing or education background, some leading members were now practicing the opposite.
Nii Nortey cautioned that, the new trend whereby party gurus gang up and storm constituencies campaigning for their favorite candidates and condemning others who they envisaged posed threats at the pending parliamentary primaries was dangerous for the NPP’s electoral fortunes in next year’s elections.
He asserted in an interview with “The Ghanaian Times” yesterday that the new practice was against the party’s constitution and tenets of an even playing field for all candidates.
This, he explained, was because many constituencies could end up not electing marketable candidates who would galvanize enough votes for the party.
His comments were in an apparent reference to a meeting held in the constituency on Monday, where another aspirant, Phillip Addison met with delegates.
Nii Nortey alleged that leading member of the NPP, Yaw Osafo Marfo, who was in attendance urged, delegates to ignore other candidates and vote for Mr. Addison, because he is a lawyer and experienced. This was followed with shouts and catcalls of “monkeys move by sizes,” but Nii Nortey contended that such campaign messages turn to create divisions and discriminating tendencies in the party.
Mr. Nortey said as a candidate, he had made it a prime objective to engage in a campaign devoid maligning any contestant or creating animosity within the rank and file of members “since any negative utterance could be used against us by our opponents in the future.”
He said he adopted this strategy because of the respect he had for other contestants and also because the winner and losers after primary would need to team up for the general elections.
Mr. Nortey said the politics of “Pull Him Down” which has manifested itself in recent times in the constituency would not augur well for the party if it aimed at annexing the parliamentary seat and winning the presidential poll.
Meanwhile, some party delegates remain apprehensive as to when the constituency primary would take place as it has been already postponed on two occasions.
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