There is 'deafening noise' for Akufo-Addo to lead NPP - Hamid

An aide to Nana Akufo-Addo says the delegates' endorsement of the two-time NPP flagbearer, did not come as a surprise as calls from the party's support base for his return, have been "so loud"..

The 2008 and 2012 flagbearer of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) obtained 598 votes representing 80.78% of total ballots cast as against 59 votes earned by his closest challenger, Alan Kyerematen representing 5.98% in Sunday's Super Delegates' Conference which saw the number of aspirants cut down from seven to five.

Nana Akufo-Addo would have to face off with Alan Kyerematen again as well as two other contenders- Francis Addai Nimoh and Kofi Osei Ameyaw in the final round of voting on October 18, 2014 where about 140,000 party officers are expected to cast their ballots in over 20,000 polling stations across the country to elect a flagbearer. Second Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Joe Ghartey, who made it to the top five, has announced his decision to withdraw from the contest.

Nana Ohene Ntow, Spokesperson for Mr. Kyerematen told Joy FM even though they knew Nana Akufo-Addo was going to win the contest, they did not expect the “margin to be that huge”.

“It's kind of surprising that we have this huge margin looking at the kind of work Alan did prior to the contest…The margin is too huge,” Ohene Ntow told Francisca Kakra Forson even before the results were officially declared Sunday.

But speaking on the Super Morning Show, Monday, September 1, 2014 Mustapha Hamid said the outcome of the congress is indicative of the fact that majority of the party's supporters want Nana Akufo-Addo to lead the NPP once more and attempt to recapture power from the governing National Democratic Congress.

“The noise was deafening and I don't think that they [delegates] would have been deaf to this noise,” Mr. Hamid said.

He told Show host, Kojo Yankson: “You can see that over 80% of the people are focused on the direction for which they want us to go…that is the message that comes to me”.

      NDC's strategy
Meanwhile, Head of Political Science Department at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Prof. Richard Amoako-Baah says the governing NDC is likely to suffer this time should Akufo-Addo get the final nod from the NPP delegates.

The return of Akufo-Addo may not be the desired outcome for the governing party especially judging from how close the results of 2012 presidential polls came, the political scientist projected.

He said the party should begin to revise its notes and stratigise to beat Nana Akufo-Addo for the third consecutive time as it is almost a done deal for him to lead the NPP again.

“I don't think this is good for them [NDC] at all because they've gone at it before”.

He however, said the NDC should restrategise and not find it difficult handing a third straight defeat to Nana Addo “because they have dealt with him before”. Failure to do this could however, turn out to be costly for the NDC, he predicted.

“Now the NDC has a job to try to improve things before the elections come again and try to have answers for all the charges that are going to be levelled against them.

“But at the same time because they've dealt with him before it makes it more difficult because he [Akufo-Addo] is going to hammer away the same things he said and add even more,” Prof. Amoako-Baah said.   Story by Ghana | Myjoyonline.com | Jerry Tsatro Mordy | [email protected]