By Christopher Arko
Accra, July 21 GNA -The National Council of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) has rejected a petition by nine flagbearer aspirants requesting that the forthcoming Super Delegates Conference of the Party be centralised.
Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia is the only aspirant in support of a decentralised Super Delegates Conference.
The nine aspirants argued that if the elections were conducted at the regional levels, the process could be compromised by some party executives who were allegedly aligned.
Mr Justin Kodua Frimpong, the General Secretary of the NPP, after a meeting by the National Council, told the media that the Council had accepted the Vetting Committee’s approval of all the ten aspirants to contest the primaries.
However, concerning the petition on the venue for the Special Electoral College, it held that the precedent set in 2014 should stand.
“This means that the Special Delegates College will be held in the various regions except for one that would be held at the headquarters for national officers, external branches and members of the National Council of Elders,” he explained.
Mr Frimpong also said the National Council had taken notice of the use unsavoury and intemperate language by some aspirants and their supporters and would start cracking the whip.
“…We are going to again issue the rules and regulations that were given to the aspirants to the public so that when we begin to crack the whip, nobody would say we are being selective,” he added.
The Council has tasked the Party’s Elections Committee chaired by former Speaker of Parliament, Professor Aaron Mike Oquaye, to supervise the Special Electoral College and the November 4, 2023, presidential primaries.
GNA