Accra, Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia has officially declared his intention to contest the flagbearer position of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) after picking up the presidential nomination form of the Party in Accra, on Tuesday.
Mr Fred Oware, a Senior Advisor to Dr Bawumia, picked up the nomination form on behalf of the Vice President at the Party’s headquarters at Asylum Down after paying the GHS50,000 nomination fee.
He was accompanied by Mr Sammy Awuku, a former Youth and National Organiser of the NPP and other leading members of the Party as well as some supporters of the Vice President.
Dr Bawumia is one of seven aspirants who have so far picked up the nomination forms to contest in the Party’s presidential primaries slated for November 4, this year.
Already, Mr Boakye Kyeremateng Agyarko, a former Energy Minister, Mr Kwabena Agyei Agyapong, a former General Secretary of the NPP, Mr Francis Addai-Nimo, a former Member of Parliament for Mampong, Dr Kofi Konadu Apraku, an Economist cum corporate executive and Dr Owusu Afriyie Akoto, a former Minister of Food and Agriculture, have all picked up the nomination form to contest the Party’s flag bearer slot.
Also, Mr Kwadwo Poku, an Energy Expert, has picked up nomination form to contest the presidential candidate slot.
Addressing the media, on Tuesday, Mr Poku said tackling youth unemployment and improving local governance would be high on his agenda should he get the nod to lead the NPP as the flag bearer and ultimately, President of Ghana come 2024.
Meanwhile, Mr Evans Nimako, Director of Elections of the NPP, said the leadership of the Party was, so far, impressed with progress of the exercise.
He indicated that the Party considered the election of a flag bearer as a ‘serious business because we are electing our presidential candidate who is going to be the president of Ghana come January 7, 2025.’
Mr Nimako assured flag bearer hopefuls of the Party’s commitment to create a transparent, levelled-playing field for the election for all prospective candidates.
‘We expect them (flag bearer hopefuls) to conduct a campaign that is civil, that is within the rules and regulations,’ he said.
The NPP, on Friday, May 26, opened nominations for the election of its presidential candidate for the 2024 general election.
The exercise is expected to end on June 24, 2023.
The one-month exercise kick-starts the processes for the final leg of the party’s internal elections to elect a presidential candidate for the NPP slated for Saturday, November 4, 2023, to contest on the ticket of the Party in the 2024 general election.
Party bigwigs, including Mr Alan Kyerematen, former Trade Minister and Mr Kennedy Agyepong, MP for Assin Central, who have all made their intentions to contest for the Party’s flagbearer slot are expected to pick up their nomination forms in the coming days.
Source: Ghana News Agency