NPP will not kowtow to Edumadze

The Central regional secretary of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Kwamina Duncan, has indicated that the party will not kowtow to the demand by Hon. Isaac Edumadze, MP for Ajumako and former Regional Minister that he should be allowed to go to Parliament for the fourth time as an unopposed candidate.

His declaration comes in the wake of a publication by The Chronicle on Thursday that Mr. Edumadze had threatened his constituency executives on several occasions that he would leave the NPP for the Convention People's Party (CPP), if he was not declared unopposed during the next NPP constituency primary to stand as the parliamentary candidate.

In an interview with The Heritage in Cape Coast shortly after the publication on Thursday, Mr. Duncan made it clear that the NPP was bigger than any member and that it would never kowtow to any demands that were above the party's constitution. He said the NPP had given Mr. Edumadze the chance to be MP for the area three times and that he could not fathom why, this time, he had decided to run as the sole candidate for the party's primary.

As to what the party was doing on Mr. Edumadze's threat, he said the party, being a democratic group, was bound to follow the laid-down procedures for electing people to Parliament. Therefore, a level playing field would be provided for all when the time came for filing of nominations to enable any qualified and interested person from the Ajumako Constituency to contest for the seat on the ticket of the party.

"If he gets the nod in the primaries, the party will give him the needed support to win the seat," Duncan said.

He said, although primaries had not begun, he did not understand why such threats should rear their ugly heads within the constituency and called for calm among the executives as the party prepared for the various primaries slated for the region.