NPP race: I wouldn’t have entered if I stood no chance – Joe Ghartey

Second Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Joe Ghartey, says he is joining the flagbearership race of the main opposition New Patriotic Party because he believes he stands a chance of winning.

“If I think I didn’t have any chance, I wouldn’t stand,” Joe Ghartey told Asempa FM’s political programme Ekosii sen on Thursday.

The Essikado-Ketan Member of Parliament and fellow Legislator for Mampong, Francis Addai Nimoh, are the latest to join the race.

They will be slugging it out with two-time flagbearer Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo; twice-failed aspirant Alan Kyeremanten; former Minister of Trade Dr Kofi Konadu Apraku and former health Minister Dr Richard Anane, who have all expressed interest in running for the presidential primary in the dying embers of 2014.

Other hopefuls expected to join the race include heart surgeon Prof. Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng; former information Minister Stephen Asamoah Boateng, Ghana’s former High Commissioner to the UK and Ambassador to Ireland, Isaac Osei and former Asuogyaman Legislator Kofi Osei Ameyaw.

If all ten hopefuls insist on running for the slot, the party’s National Executive Council (NEC) will be compelled to whittle down the number to just five as stipulated by the party’s constitution.

It is only after that NEC’s preliminary sifting that the party’s nearly 150,000 Electoral College will choose one out of those that would have been left standing. The flagbearer election, per the party’s constitution, must take place two clear years before the next election.