Freddie Blay
THE RULING New Patriotic Party (NPP) is set to replace its old membership ID cards with electronic ones this year, it has been announced to party members in Kumasi.
The new policy would coincide with a membership drive project by the party to help register more members into the party to solidify its chances of retaining political power in 2024.
The yet-to-be introduced party cards would have a special feature whereby all registered members would be automatically hooked onto a centralised computer system to make for easy identification.
When officially rolled out, the new party cards would make it possible for all NPP registered members to be in the same folder, a move that would boost the compilation of party data and do away with recurring fracas over the compilation of party albums for primaries.
This was announced when National Executives of the NPP, led by National Chairman Freddie W. Blay, interacted with some Ashanti Regional NPP bigwigs.
The executives are currently touring the regions to take stock and identify problems they faced during the 2020 general election, and take steps to rectify the problems.
The closed door meeting, held over the weekend in Kumasi, was attended by NPP Executives from all the 47 constituencies in region, and key party matters were discussed there.
National Executives of the NPP, including John Boadu, Sammi Awuku, Lawyer Henry Nana Boakye, aka ‘Nana B’, Kate Gyamfua, Rita Asobayire, Abdul Aziz Haruna Futa, just to mention a few, took turns to address the party members.
A source told DAILY GUIDE that even though several party issues were discussed at the meeting, the electronic party cards for NPP members was a standout as it excited the members.
According to him, the electronic party cards would help bring several advantages to the NPP, including proper management and data keeping among others, and those at the meeting were in full support.
Checks made by DAILY GUIDE were indicating that the delegates at the meeting proposed next month for the start of the electronic cards, subject to approval by the National Council.
Mr. Blay took the opportunity to caution all members interested in competing for the 2024 flag bearer position to be measured in the way they were approaching issues, saying their actions had the tendency to distract the Akufo-Addo-led government from delivering their mandate.
“A lot of the people who may be interested in the flag bearer position, particularly individuals who are interested may come from his cabinet or may be appointees who should be working to execute policies and programmes of his government, but they may be more focused on nurturing their ambition towards the flag bearer position. And that is where it is extremely negative and distracting, and therefore the party frowns on that,” he explained.
General Secretary
NPP General Secretary John Boadu later threw more light on the nationwide exercise of compiling a register of all the members of the party.
He said it would cover the over 38,000 polling stations in the country, and it formed part of the party’s restructuring and reorganization efforts.
He encouraged every member of the party to go to their respective polling stations and get their details captured in the membership register which would be kept at the polling station levels, and updated every six months in line with Article 3(10) of the NPP Constitution.
FROM I.F. Joe Awuah Jnr., Kumasi