A meeting of some members of Nana Akufo-Addo’s strategic team last week, discussed among other things, Nana Addo’s performance in the 2012 Presidential election.
One issue which came up from that meeting was that, the faction had to commission a study into why Nana Addo-Dankwa Akuffo-Addo’s votes has been dwindling in the NPP’s political world bank of the Ashanti Region.
An insider at the meeting explained to The Informer that, “the consensus of the study was that there has been a deliberate maneuvers to get Nana Addo’s votes reduce by way of NPP supporters staying away on election day, both in the 2008/2012.”
He cautioned thus, “In 2005 when the Akufo-Addo faction took control of the major National Executives positions, they did not seek the interest of the NPP in the Ashanti, hence the decision by that region to punish him.”
According to him, the then executives also did not resolve the may problems that arose from the party’s primaries in the region.
“Of the 18 independent parliamentary candidates in the Ashanti region in the 2008 elections, 12 of them were persons who were dissatisfied with the way some constituency primaries were organized,” the source added.
“Before the 2008 election run-off, apologies were sent out and over 200,000 more, NPP supporters turned-out to vote,” he stated and brought out a chat, which showed that Nana Akufo-Addo’s 75% vote he obtained in the 2008 run-off, dropped to 70% in the 2012 election in Ashanti region.
When The Informer asked the insider, of what proof they had that the Kufuor Ashanti-bloc was responsible for Akufo-Addo’s drop-in-votes in Ashanti, he took out a handkerchief and wipe his eyes before answering.
“We met some supporters, who said they had been told that it was the Akufo-Addo faction that made it impossible for Alan Kyerematen to get a level playing field in the 2007 flagbearership election at Legon”.
They also added that, the refusal by the National Executives at the time to investigate the manhandling of Alan’s campaign manager; Paul Afoko, during the 2007 primary in Legon, infuriated ex-president John Kufuor and his Ashanti cabal, who believed that it was a grand conspiracy to make their preferred choice, Alan, lose.
However, analysts believe that Mr. Alan Kwadwo John Kyerematen’s call for the NPP to elect a candidate, who appeals to floating voters, is not far from the Kufuor faction’s tactics to ensure that even if Nana Akufo-Addo wins the flagbearership race, he will lose the 2016 Presidential election to pave way for Alan in 2020.