Politics of Wednesday, 1 June 2022
Source: www.ghanaweb.live
2022-06-01NPP Ashanti Regional election was an auction, not an election - Kofi Adum Bawuah
Ashanti Regional NPP Chairman Bernard Antwi Boasiako
I lost Ashanti Regional chairmanship because I was the lowest bidder - Adum Bawuah
Grassroots elections should be opened to all card bearing members to stop vote-buying - Bawuah
Chairman Wontumi wins 3rd term as Ashanti Regional chair of the NPP
Ashanti Regional chairman hopeful of New Patriotic Party (NPP), Kofi Adum Bawuah, has
Read full articlealleged that all the executives elected in the just-ended regional elections bribed their way into winning.
Speaking in a Top FM interview monitored by GhanaWeb, Adum Bawuah said that the executives who won the elections were the ones who paid more money to the delegates.
He added that he lost the elections not because he was not the best candidate but because he was unwilling to pay bribes.
"The papers (money) were with the candidates (the aspirants), so after voting for them, then you would go for the papers … what happened (at the delegate conference) was an auctioning, not an election. There is a difference between auctioning and elections; we had an auctioning, not an election.
"It was the highest bidder who won at the Baba Yara Sports Stadium, and I was the lowest bidder. What I saw at the election was very surprising to me," he said in Twi.
Adum Bawuah further stated that the only way to curb the menace of election buying is to open up party grassroots elections to all card bearing members of the party.
"Going forward, between both the NDC (National Democratic Congress) and the NPP (New Patriotic Party), if we don't open up the electoral college to all card bearing members, this country will come to a crush. If we want the country to have a future, we have to open up (the grass-root elections) to all card bearing members, which will make it impossible for people to bribe their way into winning party elections," he said.
He added that opening up the election will ensure that the country has good leaders who have the interest of the country at heart and not people who will be doing all they can to recoup the monies they invested in elections.
Adum Bawuah's contender Bernard Antwi Boasiako, popularly known as Chairman Wontumi, won the Regional Chairman for the NPP in the Ashanti Region in a landslide victory to secure his third term of office. He won with a difference of 158 votes as he polled 464 votes against Odeneho Kwaku Appiah's 306.
Before the election, some suggested that Wontumi was not good enough for re-election. Odeneho had promised to mobilise a united front to aid the NPP in retaining power, but victory eluded him after the exercise.
Catch up on the latest episode of People&Places on GhanaWeb TV here:
