A flagbearer aspirant of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Kwabena Agyei Agyepong, has downplayed suggestions that Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia and Alan Kyerematen are the frontrunners in the flagbearership race of the NPP.
According to Mr Agyepong, the two candidates have been projected as the favourites by the media but his tours and engagements with party members across the country have revealed that the two are not the preferred candidates of the delegates.
Speaking on the Citi Breakfast Show on Thursday, Mr Agyepong said Ghanaians are yearning for a new kind of leader who is trustworthy and has the political will to take tough decisions.
The former Presidential Spokesperson and General Secretary of the NPP said he stands a better chance to win the election than the two candidates being framed by the media as the favourites.
“The media is virtually being cultured to present this as a two-horse race but it is very far from that. Bawumia is number 2, by virtue of the fact that he is the Vice President, politically, Alan has been number 2 to Nana Addo in the last three elections. So electorally, he is also number 2, so they are there by default.
“But I have gone around expressing my views on the new dawn and I am explaining to them [delegates] what I stand for and bring to the table like order and discipline in our country and ensuring that there is a drastic penalty regime for those who tinker with our treasury, being decisive and having the political will to drive the change that Ghanaians deserve, that has been my platform.”
Mr Agyepong also rejected assertions that the NPP only uses people from the Northern Region for votes but fails to give them a shot at the presidency.
According to him, the NPP had to bypass their rules and constitution to make Dr Bawumia the running mate of then-candidate Akufo-Addo.
“The party has a constitution, rules and regulations, you can’t even get on the ticket if you have not demonstrated membership for five years, but the party took a decision for Ohene Ntow to waive that [for Dr. Bawumia], create a card [for him] and on that day become a number two. It has never happened anywhere but [we did that] because of the respect that we had for candidate Akufo-Addo. So if you have been done such a big waiver, and you have served as Vice President and you consider that as using and dumping, whoever says that should stop that kind of talk. I don’t want to hear that”.