Endorsement of candidates can derail NPP electoral fortunes – Boakye Antwi

Eugene Boakye Antwi, the Member of Parliament (MP) for Subin Constituency in the Ashanti Region, has admonished stalwarts and members of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) to desist from open endorsements of candidates for the NPP’s flag bearer position.

He explained that such acts would make it difficult to sustain the peace, unity and harmony prevailing in the party ahead of the 2024 elections.

Criticising his colleague MPs who are already backing other candidates for the party’s slot which can fracture the party’s front, Mr Antwi stressed that “I will plead with every officer of the party that we must all respect the Code of Conduct as put out by the General Secretary of the party, we must support and assist him and the newly-elected executives to do their work diligently and to support any candidate should be an issue of preference.

“To openly endorse or support somebody, we must be careful because if the person does not win, where does that leave you? My humble plea is that as MPs we ought to know better because we are legislators and officers of the party,” he cautioned.

The National Executive Committee (NEC) of the NPP has stated that it would enforce to the latter, the Code of Conduct for the presidential and parliamentary primaries of the party and warned that failure by any executive, member, or prospective aspirant of the party to comply with the directives shall be dealt with in line with the grievance procedures stipulated in the Code of Conduct.

This was contained in a statement issued by the party after they met and cautioned Bernard Antwi Boasiako, the Ashanti Regional Chairman of the NPP, popularly known as Chairman Wontumi for openly endorsing one of the presidential hopefuls of the party.

It said in obedience to the constitution and the Code of Conduct of the NPP, all national, regional, and constituency executives of the party were once again cautioned to refrain from either endorsing or openly campaigning for any presidential or parliamentary aspirant.