NPP Kwesimintsim primary: Joe Mensah beats Joe Baidoe-Ansah
The incumbent Member of Parliament for Kwesimintsim in the Western Region, Mr Joe Baidoe-Ansah has been booted out of the New Patriotic Party’s (NPP) Parliamentary primary and cannot contest the forthcoming parliamentary elections on the ticket of the NPP.
Advertisement
Mr Baidoe-Ansah lost the NPP’s primary held on Tuesday in Takoradi to new entrant Joe Mensah who won with 187 votes as against 122 by the incumbent.
In all, a total of 341 delegates including all executives and the Member of Parliament were expected to cast their ballot but 309 turned up.
The primary in the constituency was organised in the NPP’s stronghold as a race against time to get a representative for the party as the Electoral Commission had set Thursday September 29 and Friday September 30 for filing of nominations.
Graphic Online's Takoradi reporter, Kobla Dotsey Aklorbortu reported that Mr Mensah had initially been disqualified as a candidate on grounds of not being a card-bearing member of the party but he went to court and got the green light to contest the primary.
The court last Friday in its ruling cleared the embattled Mr Mensah and acknowledged him to be eligible to contest in the primary, Aklorbortu reported.
The NPP in general organised parliamentary primaries in June 2015 but that of Kwesimintsim had to be put on hold as an earlier attempt to persuade the new Mr Mensah to allow Mr Baidoe-Ansah to go unopposed was resisted and resulted in the protracted dispute, according to Graphic Online's Takoradi reporter.
The supporters of Mr Mensah were also said to have threatened to put him up as an independent candidate if the party prevented him on its ticket.
The Kwesimintsim constituency, which was originally Effia-Kwesimintsim with Mr Joe Baidoo-Ansah as the Member of Parliament was divided into Effia and Kwesimintsim constituencies for the 2012 elections and Mr Joseph Cudjoe took the Effia seat whilst Mr Baidoo-Ansah stayed at Kwesimintsim.
The Western Region currently, has 26 constituencies of which NPP has eight and the National Democratic Congress (NDC) has 18 seat.
Writer's email: [email protected]