NPP opens nominations for parliamentary aspirants

The governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) has officially opened the window for prospective parliamentary candidates to pick nomination forms at the constituency offices of the party to contest in the September parliamentary primaries.

The party’s National Director of Research and Elections, Mr Evans Nimako, said on Saturday, 20 July 2019 that the process is expected to end on 3 August 2019.

He said interested individuals are supposed to pay GHS2,000 in the name of the party at the bank and submit the banker’s draft before the acquisition of the forms. The aspirants are also supposed to present a banker’s draft of GHS20, 000 when filing their nomination before 3 August 2019.

In an exclusive interview with Class91.3FM in Tamale, Mr Nimako, who is in charge of the processes in the Northern Region said a discount of 50 per cent will be given to persons with disabilities, female candidates and the youth below 40 years.

He said national officers of the party have been assigned to all the regions in the country to facilitate the conduct of the parliamentary elections. He explained that a constituency parliamentary election committee has been tasked with the sale of the forms across the 106 constituencies taking part in the polls.

Mr Nimako added that a national parliamentary vetting committee chaired by Mr Peter Mac Manu has been set up and mandated to receive petitions from aggrieved members who may be disqualified.

He disclosed that a binding clause is included in the form which requires aspirants to sign a contract with the party in the presence of two eyewitnesses of the candidate. This, he explained, is to ensure that, after the process, the aspirants would not have any room to contest as independent candidates in the 2020 general elections.

He added: “We want to do this to sanitise our own arrangements. We have made the process very transparent and it’s the reason why today we have met the Northern Region parliamentary election committee members comprising the Council of Elders in these constituencies, the research and elections officers as secretaries to the committee and an elderly woman from these constituencies to know what is expected of them in order to do their work diligently.”

He revealed that the NPP is targeting to add 45 seats to the 169 seats they won in 2016.

“We want to elect candidates who are liked by the people, who would be supported by the people so that the campaign towards 2020 would be an activity of all the people. We want to broaden the consultative arrangement such that everybody would be part of the decision-making process of selecting who becomes the candidate. By the time we end the 2020 elections, the NDC would know their level,” Mr Nimako stressed.