There were some speculations that the New Patriotic Party’s Parliamentary Candidate for Gushegu Constituency, Hassan Tampuli was the brain behind the current member of parliament's withdrawal from the parties primaries in June this year.

But speaking on the back of this claim, Mr. Tampuli says that the allegations are false.

He made this known in an interview on Face to Face on Citi TV on Tuesday, October 13, 2020. According to him, “it will be preposterous for people to take that position.”

“Things would have taken their natural course but for the fact that we were hit with a pandemic and then the National Executive committee and the National Council didn’t meet. The party decided that we are better off having a contest where a candidate will emerge from the contest and everybody, including the losing candidate, would support the winning candidate,” said Hassan Tampoli.

The Member of Parliament for Gushegu Constituency, Dr. Ziblim Iddi in a letter dated June 4, 2020, stated that he would like to withdraw his application from the primaries.

Describing the move as a “painful decision”, he called for the removal of his profile on the Notice of Poll and ballot paper for the election.

It is, however, unclear what might have influenced the MP to step down from the race at that crucial time.

The NPP subsequently replaced him with the Chief Executive Officer of the National Petroleum Authority (NPA), Hassan Tampuli.