The Western Regional Chairman of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP), Francis Ndede Siah has declared his support for the party’s acting National Chairman, Freddie Blay who is seeking election as chairman in the party’s upcoming National Delegates’ Conference slated for July this year.
[contextly_sidebar id=”vSqeW3FLf8jbZqpUVP6LUEKXCYQ4O4nf”]Mr. Siah made the announcement at a ‘Thank You’ tour to appreciate constituents in the Jomoro constituency for his recent election.
When queried whether he will persuade delegates to support Mr. Blay, Mr. Siah said he will leave that to delegates to decide.
“I will not speak for the delegates. I am speaking as the chairman of the Western Region NPP. The delegates have their own conscience. I support him to be the national chairman,” he said.
“I am not supporting Mr. Freddie Blay because I am an Nzema …Just as my people voted for me [after acting as the regional chairman for nearly 2 years], it will trickle down to Freddie Blay, that is the truth,” he added.
Vote-buying claims against Freddie Blay
It had earlier emerged that Mr. Blay had promised to provide all 275 constituencies with a bus to be used for commercial purposes during the congress in July.
The Head of Operations at GII, Mary Addah, in an interview with Citi News, called on EOCO to investigate the move, saying it constituted an attempt to buy votes ahead of the Congress.
“We are raising issues with any political office holder who is campaigning to be elected into office, promising the people to get them vehicles. Not just one, or two but 275 of them. We have issues with the legality of those type of promises. Whatever the case maybe. Whether it is his personal resources he is using or his gift from other cronies who might be funding his political party campaign.
“We have issues particularly because Freddie Blay has in the past been a Deputy Speaker of Parliament. He was a Member of Parliament. He is currently the acting Chairman of the NPP. He should know better and should not engage in enticing delegates to vote for him. That is purely vote buying and solicitation, which is wrong.”
Mr. Blay’s Campaign Manager, Sylvester Tetteh however rubbished these claims, saying they were borne out of ignorance.
“That [GII] lady is speaking from the position of ignorance. She has no idea what she is talking about. I think it is quite unfortunate. Clearly, Mr Freddie Blay is not promising vehicles to delegates who are going to Koforidua to vote. We have over 300,000 people in each constituency averagely across the country, so the buses are not going to the delegates who are going to Koforidua but the party at the constituency level,” he clarified.
Mr Tetteh further explained that Mr Blay would not foot the bill of these buses.
“It is the bank that is funding based on credibility and providing security. It is the bank that has done the due diligence of the proposals so for me that is the source of funding. Freddie Blay does not have that kind of money to buy these buses,” he explained.
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By: Obrempong Yaw Ampofo/citinewsroom.com/Ghana