Freddy Blay retained for Ellembelle

The governing NPP's 'Kangaroo' dance took center stage at the Ellembelle constituency primary of the Convention People's Party last Saturday where the incumbent MP, Freddy Blay, was retained as the party's parliamentary candidate for the December general elections.

Amidst cheers and shouts of ' We are Moving Forward', hundreds of charged delegates and party members who had converged at the Esiama Senior High School, venue for the primary, impulsively displayed their ' Kangaroo' antics to the tune of brass band music.

This gesture clearly demonstrated the CPP's love and admiration for the NPP and its flagbearer, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo. The highly elated MP could also not help dancing along with the enthusiastic party members.

The 'Kangaroo Fever' gripped the CPP members immediately  after the Electoral Officer's declaration of Freddy Blay, who is also the  First Deputy Speaker of Parliament, as the winner of the primary.

He polled 75 of the votes to beat his sole opponent, Nana Kwesi Blumiah Twum, who had only 4. The defeated assembly member and Tufuhene of Nkroful had prior to the election protested against the inclusion of some non-card bearing members in the list of delegates supposed to cast their votes that morning. His protest was however dismissed as baseless by both party members and the supervising Electoral Officer.

In his acceptance speech, Freddy Blay, affectionately called 'Ellembelle Blay' said he was still full of energy and ready to continue serving his people in Parliament, adding that the decision to step down would only be taken after  the people had requested him to do so.  "I'm not tired if you are also not tired of me", he added. 

The MP therefore appealed to party members and the constituents as a whole to vote for him come December to enable him move forward with the ruling NPP which he was optimistic would win the election. 

According to him, thanks to his commitment and dedicated service to the people in the past twelve years coupled with wonderful support from the party members, the Ellembelle constituency is currently the most formidable and well-organised amongst the CPP's constituencies in the country.

He reiterated that the CPP would not make this year's election a 'Do and Die' affair because Ghana is bigger than any political party, parliamentary or presidential candidate, adding that the party strongly believes in the fairness of the EC and the media.

Present at the heavily attended primary were the party's regional executives, parliamentary and aspiring parliamentary candidates as well as representatives from the various political parties, notably the NPP and NDC who delivered solidarity messages on behalf of their parties.