The newly-elected National Organiser of the governing National Democratic Congress (NDC) has said that the support of the founder of the party, Jerry John Rawlings, played a “significant” role in his election to the position.
Kofi Adams, was on Saturday, at the NDC’s National Delegates’ Congress in Kumasi, elected the party’s new National Organiser after he overwhelmingly beat the incumbent, Yaw Boateng Gyan, polling 2,543 votes to his opponent’s 734 votes.
Speaking on the Point Blank segment of Eyewitness News on Tuesday, Kofi Adams stated that former President Rawlings’ support played an important part in him unseating the incumbent on Saturday.
“He [Rawlings] played a significant part. My association with him alone and the fact that he had endorsed my candidature long before the Congress really helped me,” Adams said.
[contextly_sidebar id=”DHPR4bvinKIgWjgycxyq73WZHYfOCIwD”]He added: “I was surprised that people were saying that his endorsement of me was rather going to be a negative. It means they were not on the ground because as I moved round, one of the key things the people asked me was whether he was in support of my candidature and that if he was, they were going to go for me. And one way or the other it helped me very much, and I must thank him for that.”
He, however, laughed off claims that he only won the election following the former president’s subtle endorsement during his speech at the congress.
“I was already well established there [Kumasi]. I was well rooted. I arrived long before president Rawlings came to the grounds and when I did you saw the applause”
Former President Rawlings had, before the congress, emphasized the need for Adams to be elected by the delegates to help the party regain its “lost integrity.”
“I wish I could keep him with me for us to do a lot of work together, but I think the party needs him more than I do. My integrity is still intact, it is the party that has lost its integrity or some members of the leaders that require some people like Kofi to go and increase the quality,” the former president said of Kofi Adams.
No problems with Anyidoho
Kofi Adams also responded to suggestions that he would not be able to work with the newly-elected Deputy General Secretary of the party Koku Anyidoho given the disagreements they have had in the past.
“We have not been elected to come and talk about what is past. What is past is past. I don’t think we are going to have our late president Mills or Nana Konadu contesting the elections. The person we have now is our leader His Excellency John Mahama. I don’t have any running battles with anybody, what I have is an NDC battle”
By: Edwin Kwakofi/citifmonline.com/Ghana