NPP primaries: Boakye Agyarko withdraws from September 2 run-off

New Patriotic Party (NPP) flagbearer hopeful, Boakye Kyerematen Agyarko has announced his decision to withdraw from the party’s special run-off election scheduled for September 2, 2023.

According to Mr Agyarko, the decision by the party’s Presidential Elections Committee to limit the number of persons to vote in run-off vote between himself and Francis Addai Nimoh, contravenes the party’s constitution and guidelines outlined for the election.

“It is totally unacceptable to me that such an unconstitutional act can be perpetuated on the altar of expediency. Am I to surmise that the party did not know the cost implication?

“It is unconscionable that the rules of the game will be changed midstream. Rules and regulations that are flip-flopped in such a manner is only detrimental to fair play and justice.

“It is a clear violation of the party’s constitution and the guidelines for the Special Electoral college. It is an unconstitutional act which I cannot allow myself to be associated with.

“I refuse to be a part of such an act that seeks to unjustly truncate a previously agreed upon process, and cannot be part of what is about to be done on Saturday, 2nd September, 2023. I cannot, with a clear conscience make such an impermissible concession to such an errant decision.

“I THEREFORE, RESPECTFULLY, SERVE THIS NOTICE TO REFRAIN FROM SUCH A CONTEST,” he stated in a statement dated August 31, 2023.

The NPP as part of processes leading to the selection of a presidential candidate for the 2024 election on Saturday, August 26, 2023, held a special delegates election where over 900 people voted to reduce the number of candidates from ten to five.

At the end of the election Boakye Agyarko and Addai-Nimoh were tied to the fifth position with 9 votes each.

To break the tie between the two for the final flagbearer election scheduled for November 4, 2023, the party’s Election Committee on August 30, 2023, announced that only a subset of the 955 delegates who voted last Saturday will be allowed to vote on September 2.

But in response, Mr Agyarko said the decision is rather an attempt to sacrifice the party’s constitution and approved guidelines of the election for expediency.

“The position of the run-off scheduled for Saturday, 2nd September, 2023 was reaffirmed by the Chairman of the Elections Committee during your address to the party after the first round of the Special College elections, where you stated that candidates who voted in the first round will be the ones to vote in the second round.

“The constitutional Special Electoral College with the mandate to short-list the list of aspirants is and can be none other than the full compliment listed under Article 13, Clause (9). It is not within the province or power of anybody to truncate this list and substitute it with anything else,” he stated.

Read Boakye Agyarko’s full statement below: