Affirmative action fiat: NPP 'goofed' – Agyapong

Outspoken New Patriotic Party (NPP) lawmaker Kennedy Agyapong has said “it will be dangerous” for the main opposition to go ahead to carry out its affirmative action directive.

The National Executive Committee of the party says none of its 16 incumbent female MPs should be contested by men in the primaries scheduled for May this year.

The fiat has been met with rage from a section of the party while others including the Women in Law and Development in Africa (WILDAF) have supported it.

The programmes Manager at WILDAF Frank Bogya said the move is the best way to encourage women into politics. “We had earlier submitted a letter to the NPP and proposed to the party to allow their women MPs contest unopposed or be contested by women only.

“So this move is in good taste. In previous elections, all the parties gave promises about their desire to protect women in politics so if this is the time they have decided to redeem their promises, we all need to support them,” he stated.

However, following the raging controversy over the new regulations, the Assin Central MP believes it will be in the best interest of the party to relax the fiat.

“It was a decision from the minority in parliament and I want to state it categorically,” Agyapong said on the Starr Chat show with Bola Ray.

“It is not coming from Nana Addo; it came from the Parliamentarians. So if anything goes wrong we have to accept the blame and not shift it. We have goofed - case closed. So long as the majority has spoken and the people are saying they don’t want it I don’t see why the party should go ahead and do that. It will be dangerous.”