NPP’s Manhyia North poll was ‘bribery and curses' – Wontumi’s aide

The New Patriotic Party (NPP) parliamentary primary held at Manhyia North was anything but a poll, Mr Opoku Mensah, aide to the party’s Ashanti regional chairman, Bernard Antwi Boasiako – more commonly referred to as Chairman Wontumi – has said.

The election, which had been postponed over unresolved issues including questions that surrounded the integrity of the register of voters, happened on Saturday July 2 with incumbent MP Collins Owusu Amankwah emerging once again with the chance to represent the party in the 2016 legislative ballot.

But Mr Mensah, who spoke in his personal capacity, was unhappy with the irregularities he observed in the lead-up to the poll, stating that whatever happened on Saturday did not constitute an election.

Speaking on Accra100.5FM on the station’s breakfast show, Ghana Yensom, Monday July 4, Mr Mensah said: “If you ask for my personal view, what went on, I don’t call it an election – it was bribery and curses.”

He said the NPP had lost its identity and had now become the preserve of the rich, who were actively buying votes to win internal elections.

For that reason, he wondered if the NPP had the moral right to accuse Mr John Mahama of using state resources to pay bribes and buy votes, when the outcome of its own polls was questionable.

Mr Mensah’s remarks follow allegations on Election Day that Mr Amankwah doled out GHS700 to each of some 200 delegates with the understanding that they would vote for him or be hit with a misfortune if they failed to do their part.

“Is that the way to win power in a party such as ours? Sharing money left, right, and centre and you later go and invoke curses?” he asked.

Chairman Wontumi’s aide also said he was “disappointed” with delegates who had allowed corrupt politicians to grease their palms and sway their decisions, a development he said does not bode well for potential office holders of the party who are not well-heeled.

“I am telling you emphatically that with regards to elections in the NPP, if you do not have money, then sorry for you,” he disclosed to Chief Jerry Forson on the show, revealing that Mr Amankwah was not the choice of the people “on the ground”, adding those grassroots people will vote against him in the parliamentary elections later in 2016.

But responding on the same programme, Victor Osei Poku, aide to Mr Amankwah, said the decision was rather a “vote of courage and boldness”, which “motivates” some party members that they will be rewarded by the NPP if they are dedicated to the party, work hard, and relate well with members.

He added that Mr Mensah’s allegations were untrue and instigated by sour grapes, following an earlier declaration by him that he would do all in his power to ensure the incumbent MP lost the primary.

Mr Osei Poku said Mr Mensah was a “distraction” to the party and could not be regarded as a committed member, having defected from the NPP in 2008 to join the Democratic Freedom Party (DFP).