Breaking tie between Addai-Nimoh, Agyarko: NPP National Council vote Saturday

Members of the National Council of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) will vote on Saturday, September 2, 2023, to break the tie for the fifth position between Francis Addai-Nimoh and Boakye Agyarko.

The election will take place exclusively at the party’s headquarters in Accra.

The decision for the run-off to break the tie between the two presidential aspirants was taken after the party’s National Executive Committee and the National Council meeting which took place in Accra yesterday.

The meeting was, among other things, to decide on the way forward regarding the tie between Francis Addai-Nimoh and Boakye Agyarko.

Decision

Speaking to journalists after the meeting, the General Secretary of the NPP, Justin Frimpong Kodua, said the decision to limit the run-off to the National Council instead of the 956 delegates across the country was aimed at saving cost.

He explained that the National Council that set up the Presidential Elections Committee to oversee the Super Delegates Conference had to vary the guidelines for the conduct of the election and decided that there should be a run-off to break the tie for the fifth position.

Mr Kodua said the delegates for this Saturday’s run-off would not be the delegates who took part in last Saturday’s election but it would be the National Council that would break the tie, meaning that members of the National Council would be the delegates for the run-off on Saturday.

He said the reason being that the Super Delegates had membership which included the party’s external branches who came from abroad to vote, and that some had left, and also Article 23 of the party’s constitution gave the National Council the power to take decisions for the wellbeing of the party.

“It was based on this that the National Council took that decision to get the election done as quickly as possible.

So, on Saturday the re-run will take place at the national headquarters of the party,” Mr Kodua said.

 Recall

Messrs Agyarko and Addai-Nimoh secured nine votes each in the NPP Special Electoral College election held last Saturday, and therefore, there must be a run-off to break the tie for one of them to join the top four to become the fifth person for the flagbearership contest on November 4.

The Chairman of the Presidential Elections Committee of the party, Prof. Aaron Mike Oquaye, after the declaration of the results by the Electoral Commission (EC) at the party’s headquarters said if neither of the two tying aspirants threw in the towel, the party would go for another election on Saturday, September 2, this year to break the tie to bring the number to five as required by the party’s constitution.

Guidelines

Per the guidelines issued by the party for the election, in the event of two, three or four of the aspirants sharing the total results with the remaining contestants not obtaining any votes, there will be a run-off for those who obtained zero votes to add up to make up the five, while in the event of a tie between two or more candidates for the fifth position, a run-off election will be conducted for those who will tie on Saturday, September 2, 2023.

Candidates

The top four candidates who were selected by the delegates in the Special Electoral College election for the main primary on November 4 were Vice-President Mahamudu Bawumia; the Member of Parliament (MP) for Assin Central, Kennedy Ohene Agyapong; a former Minister of Trade and Industry, Alan John Kwadwo Kyerematen, and a former Minister of Food and Agriculture, Dr Owusu Afriyie Akoto.