Former Tamale Central MP Inusah Fuseini has sympathised with the former Trades Minister and the treatment he suffered in his bid to lead the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) into the 2024 election.
He said although he is with the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), he sides with Alan Kwadwo Kyerematen for the sake of good democratic practice.
“This is Ghana and this is our democracy and parties are enjoined by the constitution to conduct their affairs along democratic lines…so if as a passionate political observer you see a party not conducting itself along democratic lines, you have the right to talk about it because that can affect the national consciousness.
“I think Alan has a point, but he is fighting against a very tall order,” Mr Fuseini said.
The former Lands Minister stated a number of instances on the day of the election which was to inure to the benefit of Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, whom most of the other candidates have described as “an establishment candidate.”
According to Mr Fuseini, “The establishment does not want any humiliation and they want to prove a point…Alan knew from the beginning that the fight was going to be difficult.”
Alan Kwadwo Kyerematen withdrew from the party’s flagbearer race where he classified several incidents as favouring one particular aspirant during the elections.
The former Minister, who left a similar race in 2008 in favour of now-President Akufo-Addo, believes such incidents were strategically skewed to favour one candidate.
Mr Kyerematen who placed third after Dr Mahamudu Bawumia and Kennedy Agyapong also highlighted the level of intimidation directed at delegates across the sixteen regions during the election.
On the back of this, Mr. Fuseini noted that the former Trade Minister had anticipated a challenging fight for the NPP flagbearer position from the start.
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“I don’t think the election was to elect a victor, the contest was a selection contest…they had learnt from the mistakes of 2008 and so they did not want a repeat…the late lawyer Alex Obeng Manu said something and it stuck with me as a young boy which is ‘repeating mistakes has never been considered as experience.”
Mr Fuseini said changing the rules of the game when it has not ended raises more questions for the governing party.
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He expressed confusion over the NPP’s failure to anticipate a tied voter outcome when selecting five out of 10 candidates for their November 4 primaries.
The former NDC MP questioned the party’s lack of foresight, stating, “How can you run an election to shortlist and not anticipate that voter’s outcome can tie? How can you think that way and not make room for that? You want us to believe that.”
