NPP Primaries: ‘I heard a party member calling for me to be heckled’ - Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu

The majority leader in Parliament, Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu has said that he overheard someone who is alleged to be a member of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), calling on others to attack him over comments he made about the super delegates conference.

The MP for the Suame constituency in the Ashanti region indicated that he was unperturbed by the comments because there was no iota of truth in the assertion during the voting and was concentrating on casting his ballot for his favourite candidate.

Speaking to journalists in Accra, on August 30, 2023, Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu explained what transpired when he got to the voting grounds at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) and dismissed the allegations made against him.

“When I got to the grounds, somebody raised the issue and I heard the person saying, This is Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, he is coming. He is the one who claimed a contestant will get 70% and others won't do anything, you should heckle him.

" I didn’t bother to look at the person because it was of no material benefit to me. It did not worry me because it was sheer pedestrianism because people were contriving to bring violence but I ignored them, because there was no truth in that,” he said.

The majority leader in parliament recounted what he said at a radio station in Kumasi about the percentage a candidate would garner and whether there should be a run-off should there be a tie.

According to him, some members of the public misunderstood him hence the supposed attack on him by some individuals during the super delegates conference.

"What I had said I was at a Busua FM station, and one of the key supporters of Alan, I was told, had been at Abu Shia. So it was the host who told me that the woman had said that if a person garnered 90 to 95%, then the rest of them should have everything and asked me what I thought about it. And I said, well, our constitution provides that if there are five people, there should be a rerun involving five who come atop. However, if that is a principle that is espoused, then why even the figure 90 or 95% and not 70%? Because if somebody should garner 70%, it would then mean that that person has really secured for himself a head start, right? And that he's in an unassailable lead.

“I quickly added that even if we come up with five of them there will be a person in the lead, so we have together with them the person they lead, making five. So out of the four, if three indicate that, well, we are buying out and one doesn't, there still have to be a rerun. So I said, that is a position of the Constitution,” he explained.

Watch the interview below

Majority Leader Osei Mensah Osu says he was hooted at by supporters of the key contender of the Presidential Elections Alan Kwadwo Kyeremanten at the KNUST over the weekend when the party held its super delegates conference.

According to the Suame MP, the actions of the… pic.twitter.com/qkNF5BdLUE

— GHOne TV (@GHOneTV) August 30, 2023