Delegates Hoot At Nana Amoako At Election Grounds…As Party Members Vow To Vote Skirt And Blouse

Nana Amoako

As the largest opposition Party, New Patriotic Party (NPP) took the lead to conduct its Parliamentary Primaries last week Saturday, the Ghanaian Observer had interest in monitoring some constituencies that have called for change of Parliamentary candidate and Upper Denkyira East was no exemption from such constituencies.

On the day of arrival in Upper Denkyira East, what you could hear from the taxi drivers, market women and other party supporters to the delegates was, "We need change of candidate or we will change the candidates in 2016 for the party".

On the eve of the election, as the five aspirants approached the voting centre, you could hear massive of support for the aspirants but we were more Concerned about the support for the incumbent Member of Parliament, Hon. Nana Amoako and it was not encouraging at all.

We were shocked by the enthusiasm of the delegates and supporters calling for change in the constituency. Nonetheless, the call for change did reflected in the voting but Hon. Nana Amoako still emerged as the winner after the counting, and that is where the hooting started, and it was embarrassing for the incumbent MP and a party in opposition.

Out of the 554 registered delegates in the Upper Denkyira East Constituency, Hon. Nana Amoako attained 149 votes,representing 27.9%, and it was a clear reflection of the change the party supporters called for, although he emerged as the winner due to the split of vote by the other four aspirants.

As at Sunday morning, a day after the election, close to 10,000 supporters in NPP declared to vote skirt and blouse as they promised their delegates before the voting. Close to 400 delegates were highly disappointed in the result, and most of them were crying because their people warned them not to give them Hon. Nana Amoako for the fourth time.

In an interview with them, they said, "We can no longer sell Nana Amoako to the party supporters and the floating voters because we promised them change as they demanded, so is either we get an independent candidate or Nana Amoako steps down before we lose our seat to NDC, because 12,000 of our members rejected him in 2012 election".

As GO reporters, we observed one uncommon thing after the election, we knew the Parliamentary Primaries was between NPP family,but after the declaration that the incumbent MP, Hon. Nana Amoako has won the primaries, the whole town was quite as if Justice Atuguba have thrown out an election petition.

Those jubilating were Ndc supporters, with their 2012 parliamentary candidate, Dr. Nawane on shoulders, showered with white powder.

In an interview with some of the happy NDC supporters on why they are jubilating for NPP Parliamentary candidate Nana Amoako, they said, "He is the candidate we prayed for and we supported him, we have about 2000 votes gap to close, and Dr. Nawane have started some developmental project here as you can see, so is a cool chop for us in 2016. We know everything about Nana Amoako, we have closed the gap from 17,000 to 2000, we will beat him in 2016, it a cool chop for us in NDC.

Speaking to some disappointed party supporters and market women, they said the Incumbent MP for Upper Denkyira East, Hon. Nana Amoako during his campaign made it clear to the delegates at Babianiha, a suburb at Dunkwa-Offin that he Hon. Nana Amoako will join the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) if he loses the Parliamentary Primaries.

GO reporting team took the lead to verify from the delegates in Babianiha if indeed the incumbent MP said that during his campaign, we met the delegates and they reaffirmed that, "Hon. Nana Amoako threatened to switch camp to NDC if he doesn't win".

Some of the aggreived delegates and party supporters we met at Babianiha also vowed to vote skirt and blouse if the incumbent MP is maintained.

Some party supporters and delegates complained bitterly about the constituency executives on how they conducted the election, especially their constituency chairman, Nana Mensah, who is the campaign manager for his uncle, Hon. Nana Amoako.

As reporters from GO, we can confidently predict on survey, investigations and speculations that NPP will lose their seat in Upper Denkyira East to NDC if they maintain their Parliamentary candidates for the fourth time. Further, it going to affect NPP Presidential candidate,since most of their supporters have declared not to vote on the voting day because of Hon. Nana Amoako.