The Ashanti Regional Chairman of the governing New Patriotic Party, Bernard Antwi Boasiako, claims he orchestrated the defeat of the National Democratic Congress’ Member of Parliament for Kumbungu, Ras Mubarak in the NDC’s just ended parliamentary primaries.
Antwi Boasiako who is popularly known as Chairman Wontumi claimed he took the decision to teach Mr. Mubarak a lesson for being “too loud.”
Chairman Wontumi in an interview with Kumasi based Hello FM alleged that he meddled in the NDC’s election by either paying monies directly to delegates or key persons within the NDC who subsequently handed these monies to delegates ahead of the primaries.
“There are a lot of strategies that we have. Some of them require that you meet delegates, others demand that you meet some leaders and give them the money and they will distribute it to the right people. The Bible even says that money answers all things…In fact the money works in politics so that is one strategy.”
“As for the other strategies, I cannot say them on air. When you look at Ras Mubarak for instance, considering how loud he is, we decided to teach him a lesson. All that is in our hands and in our interest as well. When they were going to elect their national executives, we told them we wanted people we can work with. In politics, you must know the weakness of your opponent and take advantage of them and so you help them choose a candidate. This is something that we have done and so in 2020 Nana Addo will retain the seat,” he added.
Chairman Wontumi indicated that the NPP in the Ashanti Region has devised the strategy of exploiting the weakness of the NDC by meddling in their internal elections.
“In modern-day politics, if you want to win an election, you should know your opponent’s weakness and strengths. If you want to know your opponent’s weakness and strengths, then you have to always have to help your opponent elect their executives. That is why we offered to help during the election of polling station executives.”
“At the constituency level, we also helped them. At the regional level, we also held talks and helped them. At the presidential level, we also have a keen interest.”
Laws must deal with Wontumi
Responding to these claims, Mr. Mubarak on said Chairman Wontumi has to be prosecuted for allegedly engaging in such criminality.
“If there is any criminality in what he is claiming to have done, clearly it is a lawful country and the laws of the land will deal with him.”
It is unclear whether Mr. Boasiako’s claims of playing a role in Mr. Mubarak’s defeat are true although the latter had early on claimed that he lost because his opponent engaged in vote-buying.
Ras Mubarak at the NDC’s parliamentary elections held on Saturday lost to a senior lecturer and the Head of the Faculty of Agribusiness and Communication Sciences at the University for Development Studies (UDS), Dr. Hamza Ada.
Mr. Mubarak had 273 votes while Dr. Ada polled 401 votes.
The Kumbungu MP accused his opponent of vote-buying in a Citi News interview.
We have seen levels of vote buying and particularly in the Kumbungu election. Interestingly I have even reported and complained to the BNI to look into the possibility of money laundering. Officially, I have reported to the BNI to look at how people could just share money like crazy so to speak just three days ago,” he added.
