Undemocratic Practices In The Parliamentary Primaries At Bekwai Constituency

Since the party opened nominations for this year’s Parliamentary primaries, the incumbent MP, Mr Joseph Osei Wusu and his collaborators have worked together to stifle competition and block the other aspirant, Lawyer Kwasi Amofa-Agyemang from participating in the race, and to ensure that Mr Joe Osei Wusu becomes the only candidate in the primaries at Bekwai this year.

Several unfair schemes have been adopted by Mr. Joe Osei Wusu, and the Constituency Chairman, Mr Patrick Adu Gyamfi to deny Lawyer Amofa-Agyemang the chance to participate in the Parliamentary primaries.

First, the Party Chairman ran away with the nomination forms, and Lawyer was denied access to nomination forms until only two (2) days to the close of Nominations when he was given forms, but even that happened after our people bused themselves and travelled to the Party Head office in Accra to demonstrate.

Upon completion of his nomination forms, the incumbent MP and the Party Chairman locked the Party office and Lawyer Amofa-Agyemang could not submit his forms at the Party office.

Then came the time for vetting. These same people worked together to ensure only Mr Osei Wusu was recommended.

Lawyer Amofa-Agyemang filed an appeal against the decision of the Regional Vetting Committee, and even though we are reliably informed Lawyer Amofa-Agyemang has been cleared to contest the primaries, the Party hierarchy is playing hide and seek and refusing to make the Appeals Committee report public.

What makes this even more worrying is the seeming complicity of the Party Hierarchy in an attempt to usurp the democratic processes and engineer to ensure only Mr Osei Wusu gets the chance to stand for the primaries.

The people of Bekwai Constituency are aggrieved and wish to make it clear to the Party that we will not accept an imposition of Mr Osei Wusu on us in the 2020 elections. The rank and file in the Constituency is fed up with Mr Osei Wusu and wants a new Candidate for a number of reasons:

1. Since 2008 there has been a sharp division in the NPP Bekwai Constituency. There is growing division among constituency executives, electoral area coordinators and polling station executives. In short the party structure has now collapsed and people who are elected by the Party Executives are not allowed to play their respective roles in the Party.

The constituency chairman, the MP and their cohorts have selected their favorite party members and have neglected the rest. The MP has reechoed his divisiveness among party delegates on several media platforms to the extent that during the Easter festivities he openly boasted of giving 100 Ghana cedis to his favorite delegates alone.

2. The MP has been very sarcastic and disrespectful towards party people. During a meeting he openly said with impunity that he will not do a leg-work for any job for the youth because that’s not his core mandate.

3. The MP has for some time now been bragging to his few chosen delegates that he will use every possible means within his power to avoid contest in Bekwai. He stated on the local FM station just two (2) days ago that the Party Hierarchy has decided that he will be the only candidate whether the people in the constituency like it or not.

4. The MP has locked the rented Party office for the past 5 months

5. The electorates who are fed up with the MP now have vowed to vote against the Party. The seriousness of the matter in the Bekwai constituecy is such that the disaffection for the MP has gone beyond party executives to the communities. In the last district assembly elections held in December 2019, the electorates in one of the communities called Kyekyewere did not cast one ballot in the election because they felt they have been neglected by the MP.

6. About 14 communities have also threatened to abstain from voting in the parliamentary and presidential elections if Joseph Osei Owusu is presented as the sole parliamentary candidate.

7. it’s an open secret that allies and a host of others who are in the good books of the MP are undertaking galamsey in the constituency.

These people have destroyed all the water bodies in the constituency with impunity

8. Since 2012, votes for the MP have consistently been declining in the Bekwai constituency, and this year is likely to be worse if immediate steps are not taken

9. Mr Osei Wusu cannot enter several communities within the constituency to campaign because the people do not want to see his face due to deceipt.

11. The chiefs and people of Bekwai constituency have vowed to punish the NPP by voting against the President if the party dares to impose Joseph Osei Owusu on them as parliamentary candidate. Several individuals’ videos on social media say it all.

12. Many voters have vowed to vote skirt and blouse if Mr Osei Wusu is imposed on us by the Party Hierarchy.

13. Many voters have also decided to vote for NDC if Mr Osei Wusu is imposed on the Constituency.

14. There are some voters who have decided not to vote at all if Mr Osei Wusu is imposed as the only NPP candidate.

15. Many Party Members have also decided to defect to other Political Parties if Osei Wusu is imposed on us.

16. Mr. Osei Wusu resigned from the Party in 2008 and stood as Independent Candidate and his action contributed to NPP’s loss in the 2008 general election. We do not want a repetition of that political mistake.

For the above and many other reasons we urge the national leadership of the Party to allow a contest in the Bekwai constituency to avoid the party losing votes in the 2020 elections.

Source: Enfrancemedia