A group of disgruntled members of the ruling NDC in Sekondi have vowed to boycott the party’s upcoming parliamentary primaries if a former Deputy Western Regional Minister and two-time Parliamentary Candidate for Sekondi, Betty Bosomtwi-Sam is not allowed to contest. The angry members, numbering about 150, besieged the premises of the Regional Coordinating Council, as executives from the national vetting committee prepared to vet aspirants from its ten orphan constituencies in the Western Region. Mainly made up of older women and men singing alongside brass band music, they wielded placards some of which read “Betty is all we want”, “no Betty no vote”, “Betty come and save us” amongst others. Most of them are delegates who will be voting in the upcoming primaries. According to them, the three aspirants namely, Ama Nyamekye, an IT Tutor at the Takoradi Technical Institute, Casey Ato Odoom, a Development Consultant, and Anthony Cudjoe (RTD) MCE for Sekondi-Takoradi are rather not fit to contest. They claim Mr. Cudjoe abandoned the party in 2000 after he lost the primaries only to resurface when Madam Betty Sam who stood for the party in 2004 and 2008 had worked so hard in opposition. They alleged that the two other aspirants have contributed very little to the fortunes of the party and are not known indigenes of Sekondi. They said although Betty Bosomtwi-Sam was dismissed as the Deputy Western Regional Minister and has lost in two elections, she is still the best candidate to battle the NPP’s Papa Owusu Ankomah who has occupied the seat since 1996. According to them, Madam Bosomtwi-Sam in her short tenure as Deputy Regional Minister, has championed some development projects in Sekondi and has assisted many people. The National Organiser of the NDC, Yaw Boateng Gyan, who received the group’s petition, promised their concerns will be addressed appropriately after vetting. It took the intervention of Betty Bosomtwi-Sam who was given a rousing welcome, to calm down her supporters. After a brief meeting with the vetting committee, she told Maxx News the committee had agreed to look into her concerns, and will only allow her to contest without vetting after a scheduled meeting to look into the matter is concluded next Tuesday. According to Bosomtwi-Sam, the party’s verdict to exclude her from the primaries because she picked her forms at the closure of nominations is untenable because nominations were reopened in some constituencies including Takoradi. Madam Bosomtwi-Sam, a teacher by profession, said she did not want to contest for the third time due to lack of resources and also the treatment meted out to her by the party, but she had to respond to calls from some influential personalities and from delegates. She says although she is not in good financial standing, she is determined to contest to unseat Papa Owusu Ankomah in 2012, once she wins the party’s primaries.