Biakoye NPP threatens 'skirt and blouse'

Sixty New Patriotic Party (NPP) polling station chairmen and 12 opinion leaders from the Biakoye Constituency in the Volta Region have appended their signatures to a petition calling for the re-opening of nominations in the constituency.

The petitioners have threatened to vote for the NPP Presidential Candidate, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo and the parliamentary candidate of a different party if their request was not granted.

The petition, addressed to the Volta Regional Chairman and copied to the NPP General Secretary, Nana Ohene Ntow and Nana Akufo-Addo, alleged that there was a subtle manipulation to impose one Nana Owusu Yeboah on the constituency as its parliamentary candidate.

The petition stated that "even before nominations were opened in the 'orphan constituencies', the Biakoye Constituency Chairman, Mr Anan Forson had resorted to the manipulation of the democratic process by refusing to allow other interested aspirants to pick nomination forms for fear that his favourite would not be given the nod at the primaries.

"For the past months, the party members including us, the polling station chairmen are confused as to who our candidate for the constituency is, even though the party had finished the primaries for all the 'orphan constituencies' in the country.

"Our humble suggestion is that the party should open nominations to allow for a free and fair election to take place for the will of the people to prevail. With this, whoever emerges the winner through a democratic process is assured of the unflinching support of all of us because we do not want to be seen to be following the undemocratic and dictatorial tendencies being practiced by our opponents."

The petitioners continued: "It is our humble request that if the party fails in the next two weeks to re-open the primaries and allow Nana Yeboah to contest, we have no option than to vote for our president-in-waiting, Nana Akufo-Addo and cast the vote for any other candidate of our choice."

Meanwhile, DAILY GUIDE checks from the NPP headquarters show that when nominations were opened for the Biakoye constituency, it was only one Abu China and Nana Owusu Yeboah who picked the forms and went for vetting.

During the vetting, Abu China was said to have pulled out of the race leaving Nana Owusu Yeboah as an unopposed candidate.