Mr. Boakye Agyarko, a flagbearer candidate for the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP), called the idea of the super delegates election in its current shape a “bloody waste of time.”
Although it is commendable that the super delegates election provision’s framers intended for the process to be pruned and made less chaotic, he claimed that putting the provision into practice is a complete waste of time because a better statistical method could be used to achieve the same result immediately.
Boakye Agyarko made this statement to the media on Saturday, August 26, 2023 in Koforidua after casting his ballot in the election for the super delegates.
“This process is not to select a winner. I was one of the original drafters of this provision out of the Heyman committee. It was never intended to produce a winner.
“It was intended to select five people to represent the party going forward so therefore if after today let say that one person gets hundred percent, there will be a rerun to add four more and if the second rerun only produces another 100% there will be a third rerun. We will rerun until we get five. Why is that?
He claimed “the system is intended to produce five people and not declare a winner. So if today three people get positive number and the rest get zero, next week the party is going to run another election to select two to join the three.
“To me, it is a bloody waste of time. There is a more statistical way of doing it to make sure it is done once and for all but be that as it may, it is where we are”.
He said that the voting of super delegates was simply intended to reduce the number of delegates so that the other 208,000 could make a judgment.
Therefore, he asserted, it is improper to imply that the candidate who receives the most votes in the contest for superdelegates automatically become the flagbearer.
“Since it is not to produce a winner, the intention out of the Heyman committee which I was a member was not that the special delegates will select a candidate for the party. That mandate is given to the voters who will number 208000 plus. So you cannot have 956 people select for that 200,000 it is illegitimate. The intention of the Heyman committee in the drafting of the provision is that the pruning down is to make the process less chaotic but the five people must proceed therefore to the general population for them to select the leader of the party. That is the process. I hear all manner of speculations either out of ignorance or willful distortion to misinform”.
Boakye Agyarko stated that even the decentralization of the super delegates election was misinterpretation of the provision which states in clear language that, “a venue” must be selected for the exercise not “venues”.
Boakye Agyarko and Francis Addai-Nimoh both received nine (9) votes at last Saturday’s super delegates meeting, and the NPP has announced that a run-off will be held on Saturday, September 2, to determine their fates if no one withdraws by Tuesday.
Boakye Agyarko and Addai Nimo’s tie prevented the party from getting the fifth candidate, leading to the planned runoff between the two. The Special Delegates Conference was scheduled to narrow down five of the 10 contenders for the final on November 4, 2023.
In the super delegates meeting, Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia took first place with 629 votes, or 68.15% of the vote.
Former trade minister Alan Kyerematen finished third with 95 votes, or 10.29%, followed by Assin Central MP Kennedy Agyapong in second place with 132 votes, or 14.30%.
Kennedy Agyapong and Dr. Bawumia are vying for the NPP’s flagbearer post for the first time.
