Gov’t should ease restrictions for NPP to hold parliamentary primaries – Sammi Awuku

The National Organizer of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Samuel Awuku has appealed to the ruling government to ease the restrictions put in place to fight the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to him, the government easing restrictions will be the way forward for all political parties to either complete or start their parliamentary primaries.

He made this appeal in an interview with Happy 98.9 FM’s Afrifa-Mensah on the ‘Epa Hoa Daben’ political talk show. “We’ve elected candidates for over 106 orphan constituencies and yet to do same for the ones with sitting Members of Parliament (MP). We plead with the government to ease restrictions to enable us to have our primaries.”

He noted that the NPP was not the only party which had not completed its parliamentary primaries but the National Democratic Congress (NDC) was also yet to elect parliamentary candidates for some parts of Kumasi. “Some parties like the Convention People’s Party have not even elected their National executives to talk of moving on to elect their parliamentary executives.”

The politician mentioned that the party will ensure all processes and protocols are observed when they are allowed to complete their parliamentary primaries. “Because we find ourselves in an outstanding situation, should the government ease restrictions, we will take advantage of it,” he reiterated.

The New Patriotic Party (NPP) suspended its parliamentary primaries which were originally scheduled for April 25, 2020, to elect parliamentary candidates in constituencies where the party has sitting Members of Parliament ahead of the 2020 General Elections.

The decision to suspend the primaries was taken at a National Steering Committee meeting held on Tuesday, April 14, 2020, due to the ban on social gatherings as part of national efforts towards the containment of the Covid-19 epidemic.