Information picked up by the New Statesman newspaper indicate that there were jubilations in the camps of some gurus of the ruling National Democratic Congress when news broke out that Kwesi Ahwoi, Minister for Food and Agriculture, had suffered an excruciating defeat in his parliamentary ambition.
Mr Ahwoi, one of the key power sources around President Mills, is among the ruling party�s leading members who have eyes on the presidency after end of the incumbent�s presidential career.
Losing Saturday�s parliamentary primary therefore means he may be out of the �contest� for the party�s next presidential candidate after President Mills.
It was therefore not surprising that the camps of other competitors, including Vice President John Mahama, Foreign Affairs Minister Alhaji Mohammed Mumuni, Education Minister Betty Mould Iddrisu, Communication Minister Haruna Iddrisu and Water and Works Minister Alban Babgin, saw his defeat as refreshing news�.
Mr Ahwoi lost the Agona East primary by three votes to Queenstar Pokua Sawyerr who polled 146 votes. The minister had 143 votes. The other two contestants Eric Turkson and Kojo Yankah�s younger brother, George Yankah, had 82 and one vote respectively.
The defeat of the Agric Minister and many other members of GAME, especially District Chief Executives, come as a confirmation of the strong influence the party�s founder, former President Rawlings, continues to command among the grassroots members of the ruling party.
Like what happened to many appointees of the president, the defeat of Mr Ahwoi was said to have been orchestrated by former President Rawlings, working strongly through members of FONKAR.
Indeed, Ernest Owusu Bempah, the vocal Operations Director of FOAKAR, was in the Agona East constituency over the week when the primary was taking place.
Former President Rawlings and his loyalists had described the Sunyani Congress that elected President Mills as the party�s 2012 presidential candidate as �a choreographed� event, and indicated that it was the parliamentary primaries that would give a clear picture of who controls the masses of the party.
The outcome of the primaries in the party�s �orphan� constituencies appears to have vindicated the party�s founder and his followers.
Source: The New Statesman
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