The New Patriotic Party’s (NPP’s) hope of winning the Klottey Korle Constituency seat has been given a severe blow as one of its central pillars and parliamentary aspirant, Valentino Nii Noi Nortey, has declared to contest the seat as an independent candidate.
Explaining further, Nii Nortey, has indicated that “luckily for the big wigs, I am not a lawyer to employ gymnastics to frustrate the process. I am not a favourite to have my way.” He insisted that he desired to right wrongs in the constituency.
According to Nii Nortey, in the past week, many, including youth groups, opinion leaders and most importantly the women who sell at the Adabraka, Osu, Asylum Down and Tudu markets had declared their support for him and called on him not to despair but contest as an independent candidate and he would have their support.
Peace process stalled
What is clear now is that the peace process initiated by the party leadership for the winner of rerun parliamentary primary in the constituency, Mr Phillip Addison, and Nii Nortey to smoke a peace pipe has failed and the NPP stands divided in the constituency.
Nii Noi Nortey won the August 2, 2015 primary by polling 393 votes to beat Mr Philip Kojo Addo Addison and Samuel Nii Adjei Tawiah, who had 22 and 19 votes respectively.
But in the rerun on February 27, 2016, Mr Addison won with 396 votes as against Nii Nortey 367.
However, the agents of Nii Nortey refused to sign the tally sheets for the rerun because the figures being bandied around did not tally with their recorded figure of 715 delegates that turned out to vote.
Face of hope
Addressing a press conference in Accra Wednesday, Nii Nortey said other aspirants may have the big men on their side but he had the footsoldiers.
He asserted that he was contesting as the face of hope for the youth in the constituency, as well as for the people who believed in the street campaign he and his team had adopted.
He said the NPP’s abortive court petition showed that elections were won on the ground, at the polling station, and not at the court.
Modalities
He also pointed out that prior to the February 27, 2016 rerun, the leadership of the party and the aspirants agreed on certain modalities and one was that the election was to start at 8 a.m. but it began at 7 a.m.
He said they agreed also that all delegates should be accredited but there was no accreditation for the delegates.
Infighting in NPP
Some of the youth interviewed said because of the infighting in the NPP, they felt the NPP’s chances were slim in the constituency, hence their desire to vote for the independent candidate.
They said they would convince their friends who did not register in the constituency to transfer their votes to the Klottey Korle to ensure that Nii Nortey wins convincingly to shame his detractors.
Background
Lawyer Phillip Addison cannonballed to victory in the rerun of the Klottey Korle Constituency primary of the NPP in Accra last Saturday.
He defeated his main challenger, Mr Valentino Nii Noi Nortey, who put up a good fight to hold on to the votes he won in the shelved August 2 primary.
The third aspirant, Mr Samuel Adjei Tawiah, withdrew from the contest and threw his support behind Mr Addison.
The rerun of the primary, which was keenly contested, had a record turnout of 765 delegates out of the total number of 795.
The turnout for the August 2, 2015 primary was 434, which made Mr Addison cry foul.
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