A former political science lecturer at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Technology (KNUST) in the Ashanti Region, Dr Richard Amoako Baah, has said only candiadtes with deep pockets will win in the New Patriotic Party’s (NPP) national executive elections in the party’s upcoming congress this weekend.
According to Amoako Baah, a person’s competence does not matter in NPP internal polls but rather the amount of money one can dole out to the delegates.
Speaking ahead of the party’s congress this weekend on the Class Morning Show on Class91.3FM with Kofi Oppong Asamoah on Thursday, 14 July 2022, he said persons contesting for the national chairmanship position “are all good materials but unfortunately, it is not your knowledge or competence that will be used in voting for you. It happened in the past four years, it’s the amount of money you have that will determine whether you’ll win or not.”
He said “someone like Stephen Ntim, because he’s contested so many times, sympathy vote is on his side, but apart from that, any one of them can be the leader, all you need is money.”
He noted that voting for the highest bidder “shouldn’t be the way but that is what it is and it is not just dangerous for the party but dangerous for the country because it’s through party that people come to government and so if we do elections this way, it means we’re not looking for the competent ones, the one with deep pockets is the one that’ll come forward…”
Dr Amoako Baah who is also a leading member of the party lamented that the party’s internal polls most often “comes down to money.”
“it happened in the regional elections in Ashanti region and wontumi won because he paid the most money…If you don’t have deep pockets don’t bother,” he alleged.
The NPP’s national congress to elect national executives is scheduled to take place at the Accra Sports Stadium from 15 to 17 July 2022.
