Nine out of the ten presidential hopefuls of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) have joined forces together to protest against the party’s plan to decentralize the upcoming August 26th special delegates conference.
According to a report, the nine aspirants who appear to have ganged up against the front runner in the race, Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia have petitioned the party’s leadership, stating that the planned regional elections would be unwise for the party, which has only 900 voters.
They are calling on the party to centralize the polls and allow all delegates to converge at one venue instead.
The Vice President, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, is the only one of the ten aspirants who supports the idea of decentralised election.
The nine aspirants say that they believe the idea would not sit well with the party, as it would be difficult to monitor and administer the election – especially given the number of voters involved.
The NPP has been under strict scrutiny over the election candidates in the past, which resulted in disqualifying many of the presidential aspirants.
As per the constitution of the party, the current list of aspirants will be cut down from ten to five after the August 26th special delegates conference.
The NPP’s General Secretary, Justin Kodua Frimpong, has also commented on the ongoing preparations for the election.
The party is currently in the final stages of compiling a new register in anticipation of the August 26th special delegates’ congress. Compiling a new register will be necessary given that some delegates have passed, and they need to be taken off the list.
He said they intend to release the final list of 900-1000 delegates before the weekend.
It should be noted that in 2014, under Kwabena Agyepong it was decentralised and some of the aspirants participated in the contest.
By Vincent Kubi