Tawiah withdraws from NPP Klottey Korle primary

One of the three parliamentary aspirants contesting the Klottey Korle Constituency primary of the New Patriotic Patriotic Party (NPP), Mr Samuel Nii Adjei Tawiah, has withdrawn from the race scheduled for tomorrow.

Mr Tawiah, a stalwart in the politics of the constituency, has taken the decision to withdraw from the primary which has Mr Valentino Nii Noi Nortey and Mr Philip Kojo Addo Addison as the other contestants.

In his view, his withdrawal is to bring peace and unity to the rank and file of the party in the constituency.

He has, however, thrown his weight behind Mr Addison and appealed to Nii Nortey to do same to bring genuine unity among members of the party in the constituency.

According to Nii Tawiah, the constituency has been polarised. and someone has to sacrifice to end the polarisation of the party there.

“I really wish my young brother, Nii Nortey, will see eye to eye with me and withdraw to allow Mr Addison to go unopposed to demonstrate that the constituency is very united,” he wished.

Mr Tawiah said he was currently engaging the delegates of the constituency to support one candidate so as to bring unity of purpose to the party, which has elections to win come November 7.

He, however, indicated that he would support either of the two aspirants who would win the primary, if the party failed to present a common candidate for the primary tomorrow.

He also said the two aspirants were both good and experienced people but thought Mr Addison was ahead to win the seat for the party.

Nii Tawiah contested the NPP parliamentary primary of the constituency in 2004, 2008 and 2012, winning 2008 and 2012 to represent the NPP to contest the elections. He nearly won the seat for his party by making a strong show against Nii Armah Ashietey of National Democratic Congress (NDC).

Rerun of primary

Last week, the steering committee of the party ordered a rerun of the parliamentary primary in the Klottey Korle Constituency, following months of controversy over its fairness.

The party’s decision comes after it agreed with the parties to withdraw the case from court.

Announcing the decision, the acting General Secretary, Mr John Boadu, told anxious party supporters the rerun was necessary if peace was to prevail in the constituency.

This, however, does not seem to sit well with the supporters of Nii Noi Nortey, who accused the acting National Chairman, Mr Freddie Blay, of backing Nii Noi's contender, Mr Addison.

Pursuant to that, Nii Noi vowed after last week’s decision by the steering committee of the party not to participate in “any sham rerun”.

However , he has reconsidered his decision and is willing now to participate in the rerun.

Background

It will be recalled that Mr Noi Nortey polled 393 votes to beat Mr Addison and Nii Adjei Tawiah, who managed to garner 22 and 19 votes respectively, in the party’s primary held on August 2, 2015 at its headquarters.

This was after the primary in the area had been postponed several times due to protracted issues among the main contenders.

Even through the election was boycotted by Mr Addison and Nii Adjei Tawiah for lack of transparency, the Electoral Commission (EC) went ahead to hold it that day.

This brought about a lot of confusion and misunderstanding among the rank and file of the party in the constituency, causing Mr Addison to take the issue to court.

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