NPP Primaries: Sammi Awuku denies party’s intervention to retain sitting MPs

Sammi Awuku, the National Organizer of the governing New Patriotic Party has rubbished the assertion that the party had plans to make some sitting MPs contest unopposed by intentionally disqualifying some aspirants.

According to him, the party played no role to secure the positions of the sitting MPs.

Speaking on Citi FM’s “Eyewitness News” on Monday, the National Organizer stated emphatically that "all decisions made towards the primaries were done by the party’s Executive Council in the interest of party members”.

“I completely disagree that they deliberately protected some MPs and also gave up on some. I don’t think that is a fair analysis of our situation. What happened was that the National Executive Council decided that in some constituencies, these are the decisions we need to take and they take these decisions with the supreme interest of the party. Then it’s up to us as implementers of these decisions to get to the ground, activate our conflict resolution outfit chaired by the Chief of Staff and the party leadership at the Regional and national levels to mend cracks where they are and also to calm tempers where necessary. So, we took decisions based on some details presented to the NEC of the party and you can’t fall to this body. That is the highest decision making body when it comes to making decisions in respect of parliamentary primaries.”

“...were you expecting the NPP to open nominations or protect Sarah Adwoa Safo in Dome-Kwabenya?”, he questioned, adding that “I’m sure if we had decided that Adwoa Safo should go unopposed, you would have said that we were not being democratic. At the end of the day, you realize that even though it was a keenly contested election, the delegates also decided to retain their sitting MPs”.