NPP race: You’re a ‘coward’ if you opt out now – MP dares Alan, et al

A Legislator of the main opposition New Patriotic Party, Nii Kwartei Titus-Glover, says the three flagbearer-aspirants seeking to nudge off two-time presidential candidate, Nana Akufo-Addo, from the standard-bearer throne, are “cowards” if they withdrew from the race now.

Alan Kyeremanten, Kofi Osei Ameyaw and Francis Addai-Nimoh are insistent on contesting the former Attorney General in the second congress of the party’s presidential primaries, despite a fair dose of imploration by some Elders within the party, for them to allow Akufo-Addo to go unchallenged in the mega delegates congress scheduled for October 18, 2014, at which event an Electoral College of 141,000 will elect one of the final five as flagbearer for 2016.

Akufo-Addo polled more than 80 percent of votes in the first congress, which was used to whittle down the number of aspirants from seven to five, as stipulated by the party’s constitution, which requires that such a mini congress be held, if more than five people contested the slot.

One of the final five, Joe Ghartey, voluntarily opted out of the race, a day after Sunday’s super delegates’ congress, in response to calls by the NPP’s Ashanti Regional Council of Elders who earlier proposed that whoever secured more than 68 percent of Sunday’s vote, be allowed to go unopposed.

Despite Akufo-Addo’s resounding margin of victory in the first race, three others who made it to the final list are not succumbing to pressure to bow out.

Titus-Glover told private FM station, Radio XYZ Wednesday that the three should be allowed to contest, so their “smoothness level” is made known to them.