There is widespread anger among incumbent assembly members aligned to the New Patriotic Party (NPP) seeking re-election in the upcoming district level elections following a decision by the party to hold primaries for the district level elections.
The New Juaben South Constituency executives in the Eastern Region of the NPP has instituted primaries for electoral areas where more members of the party have shown interest to contest as assembly member.
However, most of the incumbent assembly members who are members of the party boycotted the primaries held on October 5th and 6th, 2019, challenging the decision by the party which they claim was inconsistent with the Local Government Act.
A memo signed by the Constituency Secretary of the NPP, Isaac Adjabeng, stated that “At the constituency general meeting held on Sunday 15th September 15, 2019, a decision was taken to elect candidates for the assembly elections at electoral areas where we have more than one party faithful who has shown interest to contest.
“Per the rules and guidelines set all contestants will sign an undertaken that he or she will not contest the assembly election after he or she lost the primaries or in other words he or she will not go independent after he or she has lost the party’s selection processes.
”Any party faithful who will go contrary to the rule number four of the party will face sanctions, any party faithful who contest independently after he or she has lost the party’s selection processes will face sanctions,” the statement said.
However, there was widespread suspicion the decision by the constituency executives was taken ostensibly to clear assembly members believed to associate with the incumbent Member of Parliament, Dr Mark Assibey Yeboah and be replaced by affiliates of the Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Free Zones Authority, Michael Okyere Baafi who has been working underground to unseat the MP in the yet to be held constituency primaries of the party.
Alleged power struggle continue to fester between the two political factions within the party which has been evidence throughout its internal elections but according to the party, the decision was to avoid multiplicity of candidates from the same party in an electoral area to ensure the party consolidated and improved performance in winning more electoral areas. -starrfmonline.com
