John Boadu
The ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) has cautioned its parliamentary aspirants to desist from campaigning until the party opens nominations and set out guidelines for the primaries.
The NPP’s General Secretary, John Boadu, who gave the warning in a statement, said “this caution has become necessary following complaints the party has been receiving about the conduct of some prospective parliamentary aspirants who are overtly and covertly campaigning to delegates ahead of the opening of nominations.”
This became necessary following the reports about manipulation of albums at the constituency levels.
According to the statement, the conduct of these persons does not only flout the party’s internal regulations but also undermines the very structures of the party particularly at the constituency and regional levels.
It said “they are reminded that the party reserves the right to disqualify any parliamentary aspirant who fails to abide by the rules of engagement. The NPP is a disciplined party and as such everything is expected to be done in accordance with rules and regulations.”
“The party also wishes to use this opportunity to make the point that for each of the 275 constituencies, the album that was used to elect the current constituency executives at the 2018 Constituency Annual Delegates Conference shall be the same album that would be used to conduct the upcoming parliamentary primaries.”
The statement observed that “however, if the need arises for a review of the constituency albums, that decision shall be taken by the national party and communicated accordingly.”
For the avoidance of doubt, it said, the party’s National Secretariat has copies of the various constituency albums for each of the 275 constituencies which albums shall be used for the parliamentary primaries until otherwise communicated by the national party.
“In the light of this, it would be a futile exercise for anybody particularly constituency executives, prospective parliamentary aspirants, sitting members of parliament and other stakeholders to engage in tampering with the current constituency albums for purposes of effecting changes to suit their interests.,” according to the statement.
It added “that notwithstanding, the party cautions all persons who may be engaged in such enterprise to desist forthwith, else they risk being sanctioned in accordance with the party’s disciplinary procedures.”
By Melvin Tarlue