The New
Patriotic Party (NPP) has officially opened the window for prospective
parliamentary candidates to pick nomination forms at the constituency offices
of the party to contest in the September parliamentary primaries.
The process is expected to end on August 3, 2019
with interested individuals supposed to pay GH¢2,000 in the name of the party
at the bank and submit the banker’s draft before the acquisition of forms. Aspirants
are also supposed to present a banker’s draft of GH¢20,000 when filing their
nominations.
Evans Nimako, the National Director of Research
and Elections, who is also in charge of the processes in the Northern Region
said a discount of 50 per cent would be given to persons with disabilities,
female candidates and the youth below 40 years.
He explained that national officers of the party
had been assigned to all the regions to facilitate the conduct of the
parliamentary elections and a constituency parliamentary election committee had
been tasked with sale of the forms across the 106 constituencies taking part in
the polls.
“A national parliamentary vetting committee
chaired by Peter Mac Manu has been set up and mandated to receive petitions
from aggrieved members who may be disqualified. A binding clause is included in
the form which requires aspirants to sign a contract with the party in the presence
of two eyewitnesses.
“This is to ensure that after the processes, aspirants will not have any room to contest as independent candidates in the 2020 general election. We want to do this to sanitise our own arrangements and we have made processes transparent and fair.
“This is the
reason why we have met members of the Northern Region parliamentary election
committee comprising Council of Elders in constituencies, research and
elections officers as secretaries to the committee and an elderly woman from the
constituencies to know what is expected of them in order to do their work
diligently.
“The party is targeting to add 45 seats to
the 169 seats we won in 2016, elect
candidates liked by constituents and be supported and assisted by constituents
for campaign towards the 2020 elections.
“We want to broaden consultative arrangement for everybody to be part of the decision-making process of selecting who becomes candidate, by the time we end 2020 elections, the NDC will know their level,” Mr Nimako touted. -classfmonline.com
