The Dome/Kwabenya Constituency Secretary of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) Ansah Larbi has called on the party’s delegates to choose a parliamentary candidate that appeals to the constituents and would help the party retain the seat for the party ahead of the 2024 general elections should on Saturday, January 27, 2024, chose a candidate who is liked by the constituents.
According to him in the last four years the constituency has been hot, but things are calm and delegates have already taken their decision; they know who they want to vote for from the three aspirants – the incumbent, Sarah Adowa Safo who is seeking re-election, Mike Oquaye Junior who is not new in the race as well as Sheela Oppong Sakyi, the new entrant.
The constituency secretary in an interview further pointed out that measures have been put in place to ensure that whoever loses does not go as independent candidate, and further added that in the year 2020 primaries when Oquaye Junior lost, he did not go independent; he came around to do his best to campaign for Sarah Adowa Safo, then NPP Parliamentary candidate.
“We are all NPP, we are one family and we need to put ourselves together and execute a very massive campaign to break the eight; that is what is important. If we fail to break the eight whoever wins as parliamentary candidate and for that matter MP cannot do much to help the constituency so I think everybody knows that and they know party first”.
On the issue that played out sometime with the absence of the sitting MP which became a topical national issue, he noted that the delegates know the aspirants and what they should do he said if it is going to play out in the primaries, he noted that the delegates know the aspirants and what they should do those going to vote are thousand eight hundred and forty.
He said the delegates represent those who vote for the NPP, so it is very important to ensure their preference is met; adding that they have realized some drop in the number of people who voted for the party in the previous election.
“We have forty- four thousand registered voters not voting in this constituency in the last primaries so there is something wrong somewhere; we need to find out why they did not vote. Maybe their voices were not heard; we did not listen to them or represent them and did not do what they wanted.
We have educated the delegates that you are the mouthpiece of the polling station, you represent as executives so you should before you choose a candidate listen to the ground; go to the market, trotro stations in your local area, those who use public transport listen to what the people are saying”.
Again, if the delegates make a choice that does not go down well with the people it will have a negative effect on the party.
In the case of the sitting Member of Parliament, Sara Adowa Safo he noted that she has been in office, delegates have the right to speak about what she has done, if the masses are happy with her so be it but if they are not happy with her then, I do not think there is a point continuing with her so delegates must listen to the masses.
Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/Ghanamps.com