NPP will win 2016 – Lawyer Addison

The lawyer who led the New Patriotic Party (NPP) legal team during the 2012 Presidential Election Petition hearing at the Supreme Court, Philip Addison, says his party will win the 2016 General Elections.

He explained that the NPP is in a better position than it was in 2012 and is confident of victory, because of the conjunction of two key factors.

First, he said, the NPP won the 2012 presidential election, thereby stating, tacitly, that the Electoral Commission (EC) tampered with the actual verdict of the people.

“I was part of the team that worked on the evidence and I know what I’m talking about,” he affirmed.

Addison made these statements when Today caught him for a snap interview while he was doing rounds of registration centres in Klottey Korle Constituency.

He is the NPP parliamentary candidate for the 2016 elections slated for November 7.

Barely a fortnight ago, the NPP chairman of the Ashanti Region, Bernard Antwi BOasiako also known as Wontumi, slapped the party’s Member of Parliament for Manhyia, Honourable Collins Amankwah, opening to public eyes yet again the deep-seated cracks in their party.

Asked whether, in his opinion, the incessant problems in the NPP are not likely to affect their chances at the polls, Addison argued that every political party has its fair share of problems, and that, indeed, the National Democratic Congress (NDC) has worse internal problems.

Speaking to the specific case of Wontumi slapping the Manhyia MP, the Klottey Korle MP-prospect said the way and manner the police handled the matter and how the media reported it blew it out of proportion.

He observed that if the police had handled it like any other non-aggravated assault case, the matter would not have gained the attention it gathered.

On January 19, 2016, a High Court ordered a re-run of the party’s primary for the parliamentary ticket in Klottey Korle, and Addison snatched victory from his opponent, Nii Noi Nortey, who won the initial primary run on August 02, 2015.

Hitherto, Nii Nortey has threatened to go independent and has actually posted bills in public to that effect.

When Today asked whether he foresaw that affecting his chances at the November 7 polls, Addison said he hopes it does not come to that.

He explained that the NPP is one big family and party elders are working hard to reconcile Nii Nortey to the party and to rescind his decision to go independent.