A meeting last night by the Steering Committee as well as other decision making bodies of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) was unable to come out with dates for its presidential and Parliamentary primaries.
The meeting failed to achieve it purpose as the National Executive Committee (NEC) want more engagements in terms of broader consultations before a date is fixed for primaries.
The meeting had top hierarchy members of the party including President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia, the Chief of Staff, some Members of Parliament, and some presidential candidate hopefuls was expected to set dates for the presidential and parliamentary primaries but ended inconclusively.
This is so because while some blocs within the party are pushing for an early congress, others want the party to stick to its constitution of electing a flagbearer 12 months.
After some hours of deliberations, the meeting ended inconclusively.
Confirming the decision of the Steering Committee, the General Secretary of the party, Justin Frimpong Koduah told the media after a closed-door meeting that there was no challenge regarding fixing the dates for the elections.
He however mentioned that they needed more deliberations centered on strengthening the party’s internal structure before settling on a date.
According to him, “I am sorry to disappoint you that from Steering Committee through to NEC and National Council (NC) it has been resolved that as a party, we need to do further consultation on the timelines for the presidential and parliamentary elections and within the shortest time possible, we will come out with the timelines for our presidential and parliamentary elections.”
The chief scribe stressed “As a party, we believe in consensus building and we recognise the views of each stakeholder in our deliberations so we want to come out with a date that is built on consensus and once that is done, we will tell you when the timelines will come.”
Unconfirmed report indicates that the Council had set November 2023 to elect its presidential candidate, January 2024 to elect parliamentary candidates for constituencies with sitting Members of Parliament and April 2024 for constituencies without sitting MPs.
Meanwhile, the meeting is yet scheduled to a date for another meeting after the broader consultations.
By Vincent Kubi