Former Director of Communications of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and spokesperson for Alan Kyerematen’s campaign, Yaw Buaben Asamoa says Vice President, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia is using government resources and personnel to get delegates to accept him as a candidate.
That, he said, contributed to the findings of a survey conducted by Global InfoAnalytics and Citi TV/Citi FM among NPP delegates which revealed that Dr Bawumia, leads the former Trade and Industry Minister, Alan Kwadwo Kyerematen and MP for Assin Central, Kennedy Ohene Agyapong in the race to lead the NPP into the 2024 general elections.
According to the survey, Dr Bawumia leads with 34.8% of the votes, followed by Kyerematen with 27.9% and Kennedy Agyapong, 12.5%. The rest of the candidates attracted less than 1% of the votes, while 8.9% declined to reveal who they intend to vote for and 15.10% were undecided.
However, in a run-off, the poll finds Alan Kyerematen leading Dr Mahamudu Bawumia 38% to 37% of the votes. 16% of the delegates were undecided and 9% declined to disclose who they would vote for in the event of a run-off.
Mr Asamoa was speaking in an interview on Eyewitness News on Citi FM in Accra on Thursday.
“Anybody telling you the Vice President is not campaigning is not telling you as it is. He has government appointees going round offering incentives. They are those who are being threatened to follow through. There are those who are being promised all manner of things.”
“There are teams of government appointees and party leaders going round the country working on his behalf regularly and constantly. So it is not about he himself, he is campaigning seriously with government resources and personnel moving around the country trying to get delegates to accept him as a candidate,” he stated.
Mr Buaben noted that participants felt obliged to be on the Vice President’s side because of the grassroot campaigning being done on his behalf.
“All this is part of the impacts that you see in the polling. The people feel that if I am asked, it will be safer for me to say it that way rather than say it the other way. So there are things happening on the ground,” he added.
Meanwhile, Dr Bawumia will file his nomination forms to contest the NPP Presidential Primaries in Accra today, Friday, June 16, 2023.
Mr Buaben said he was confident Mr Kyerematen will win the primaries and subsequently become Ghana’s next president.
“I am confident that Alan will win this primary and cross on to lead Ghanaians. Delegates are aware about sentiments in the country and know who they want to lead them. We know what is happening on the ground, he is doing appreciably well,” he added.
More so, Mr Asamoa said the survey was useful and informational.