A Senior Political Science Lecturer at the Kwame University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Dr. Kwasi Amakye Boateng, says Alan Kwadwo Kyerematen would have lost the November 4 presidential primaries of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) terribly had he not withdrawn from the race.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Speaking on Asempa FM\u2019s Ekosiisen programme on Wednesday, September 6, Dr. Boateng said the former Trade and Industry Minister had already lost his grip and influence within the NPP long before the election.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The lecturer noted that he was surprised as to why Mr Kyerematen thought he was nurturing a presidential ambition in the party.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
According to him, Alan\u2019s performance in the Super Delegates\u2019 Conference where he emerged third and far off from his closest contender, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, was a sign of failure and clearly an indication of the end of his political career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dr. Boateng says Alan\u2019s withdrawal from the race on Tuesday, September 5, citing electoral irregularities, unfair treatment and bias during the super delegates\u2019 conference did not come to him as a surprise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAfter the super delegates\u2019 conference, I said that Alan\u2019s terrible performance indicated failure, and it was a sign of an end to his political ambition considering his stature in politics and in the party.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cBut then some also said he [Alan] has a strong connection to the grassroots and so he could pull a surprise there, and I had to listen to other arguments as well. So, I didn\u2019t expect him to withdraw, but when he eventually did it wasn\u2019t a surprise to me\u201d he noted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Although he disagreed with Alan\u2019s claims about a super delegates\u2019 conference that was characterised by violence except for the pockets of incidents, Dr. Amakye Boateng agreed with the notion that the decision to hold the election at different points rather than a central location, allowed for influence peddling and may have given others an advantage in the exercise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe election itself was an elite election. It was a few influential individuals in the party who went to vote, and it takes out so much from the election which is worse than physical violence. It\u2019s a case of two individuals; with one carrying charcoal and the other carrying raw meat, and then you expect all of them to attract flies to themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt happens that the one carrying charcoal doesn\u2019t attract any flies, but the one carrying raw meat attracts flies, and to me, this played itself out, and that\u2019s why Alan\u2019s performance went that way. It was ably supported by the coercive element of the environment that required the election to be held at different centres. These were subtle but they\u2019re obvious to people who have eyes to see them. They played out so strongly and significantly.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAnd don\u2019t forget there are no jobs in this country, and many of the people who went to vote I expect are all working in government and they want to keep their jobs and positions and enjoy the largesse in government. When you put all these together, you want to know why Alan performed so terribly \u201che noted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He added that the outcome of the election \u201cwas strategised long ago. It started in Kumasi when Chairman Wontumi knew he was going to lose his second term bid and he was made to go unopposed through Nana Addo\u2019s direct intervention. I have reasons to come to this conclusion.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIn elections, the rules should not enable people to win ahead of time. It defeats the paradox of electoral governance. If you are able to predict the outcome of the elections ahead, it means you can\u2019t guarantee what we call electoral certainties. So, a lot of things have happened.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIn the Ashanti Region, we know Members of Parliament who have lost their seats over the years and you could see that there was a plan being implemented. And so, virtually Alan has been out for a long time. I don\u2019t know whether he himself has been aware because I have not seen much of him by way of his people trying to counter that drive over the years, and I have been wondering why he still thinks that he\u2019s still nurturing a presidential ambition in the NPP.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cPolitics is politics, and one political scientist, Robert Dahl, has one general definition for politics I like to use \u2013 the exercise of influence. So, if I want to become the presidential candidate of my party and I have foresight, then definitely I would have to take the lead and do what I have to do, to get what I want. What did Alan do? I didn\u2019t see it. Over here, I am not blaming anybody but these things have taken place and they have affected Alan\u2019s fortunes.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Asked by the host of Ekosiisen, Osei Bonsu [Alias OB] whether Alan\u2019s participation in the November 4 presidential primaries would have made any difference, the political scientist retorted, \u201cHe [Alan] would have lost miserably. Some people argued strongly that he\u2019s a grassroots person so I was waiting to see how strong that ties is. If he himself had strong faith in that strength in the grassroots, then he didn\u2019t have to come out. Why is that so? Because the moment he leaves the NPP he\u2019s going to fade into insignificance whether he likes it or not.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Unlike the claim made by other political scientists, Dr. Amakye Boateng noted that Mr. Alan Kyerematen will not make any impact in Ghana\u2019s politics outside of the NPP if he breaks away or attempts to go independent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cSmall parties have not survived in Ghana from the time of the struggle for independence till date. Small parties have not fared well. If he [Alan] stands as an independent candidate even Ashanti Region will not vote for him.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A Senior Political Science Lecturer at the Kwame University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Dr. Kwasi Amakye Boateng, says Alan Kwadwo Kyerematen would have lost the November 4 presidential primaries of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) terribly had he not withdrawn from the race.<\/p>\n
Speaking on Asempa FM\u2019s Ekosiisen programme on Wednesday, September 6, Dr. Boateng said the former Trade and Industry Minister had already lost his grip and influence within the NPP long before the election.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":37479,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_post_source_name":"","_post_source_url":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[4678,7455,2244,211,7960,7489,6819,13261,911,9196,12310,192,2264,12234,8601,7407,3721,4331,3874,6411,10634,611,10928,11973,1198,5424,11377,6200,2381,8943,9162,8840,6675,10329,8206,214,6925,594],"class_list":["post-37478","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","tag-alan-kyerematen","tag-ashanti","tag-ashanti-region","tag-bawumia","tag-case","tag-chairman","tag-chairman-wontumi","tag-charcoal","tag-election","tag-environment","tag-exercise","tag-ghana","tag-government","tag-host","tag-independence","tag-jobs","tag-knust","tag-kumasi","tag-lead","tag-lecturer","tag-lost","tag-mahamudu-bawumia","tag-no-jobs","tag-one","tag-parliament","tag-politics","tag-presidential","tag-race","tag-science","tag-scientist","tag-scientists","tag-strong","tag-technology","tag-trade","tag-treatment","tag-university","tag-wontumi","tag-who"],"blocksy_meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37478","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37478"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37478\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37480,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37478\/revisions\/37480"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37479"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37478"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37478"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37478"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}