A section of the group at the Press Conference at Paga
A group calling itself Concerned Activists of NPP in the Chiana-Paga Constituency in the Upper East Region, have kicked against the choice of candidates shortlisted by the Party’s Executives for the position of District Chief Executive for the Kassena-Nankana West District.
In all, 18 individuals applied to be considered for the position of the District Chief Executive for the district, but only 5 persons have been shortlisted by the executives to be considered at the Regional level, before they proceed to be national level for one to be nominated by the President for the position.
At a Press Conference at Paga, the Concerned Activist of NPP in Chiana-Paga Constituency, described the process used by the Constituency Executives of the Party for the shortlisting process as “unconstitutional, biased and does not foster party unity. According to the Group, the procedure used is an affront to the tenets of democracy and definitely does not fall in line with the credentials of New Patriotic Party, which is touted as a party that believes in the “Rule of Law”.
The Group hinted that, instead of interviewing all the persons who applied for the position, the Constituency Executives decided to select two persons each from the Eastern and Northern Zones of the constituency and just one person from the Western zone. The Group is of the view that, the criteria left out some competent persons because the shortlisting was done on Zonal basis and not on competence.
Apart from the unconstitutionality of the process used in the shortlisting the five individuals, the Group alleged that some of the Constituency Executives were compromised by some of the candidates and therefore think their list will not be accepted by majority of the people in the area.
They indicated that, they will not accept the shortlisted names for the District Chief Executive position for the Kasena-Nankana West District.
The Concerned Activists of NPP in the Chiana-Paga Constituency however, called for the resignation of the Constituency Party Executives to make way for a more neutral body to handle the process with focus on the applicants’ competence and not on the zone they come from.
FROM: EBO BRUCE-QUANSAH, Paga