NPP bans camping of delegates in Jan 27 primaries
The governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) has banned camping of delegates, campaigns and vote canvassing at voting centres in Saturday’s parliamentary primaries of the party.
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It is the final leg of the party’s internal elections to select parliamentary candidates in constituencies where the NPP has sitting Members of Parliament (MPs) for the 2024 general election.
The primaries are expected to take place in 108 constituencies in 15 out of the 16 regions where the party has representation in Parliament.
The regions are Ashanti, Eastern, Ahafo, Bono, Bono East, Central, Greater Accra, North East, Northern, Savannah, Upper East, Upper West, Volta, Western and Western North.
In the Ashanti Region, the primaries would be held in 40 out of the 41 constituencies with Nyiaeso put on hold as a result of a court injunction while elections would be held in 24 constituencies in Eastern, 14 in Greater Accra, Central 10, Northern, nine, Western, nine, North East, four, Savannah, three, Upper East, two, Upper West three, Volta three and Western North three.
Out of the 376 aspirants who filed to contest, 322 were cleared to contest in the elections, 33 are going unopposed while 17 others were disqualified and three stepped down from the contest.
Guidelines
A statement signed and issued by the General Secretary of the NPP, Justin Kodua Frimpong, the party urged parliamentary candidates to desist from camping supporters to vote for them as part of 32 protocols outlined by the party for the primaries.
The party has banned gathering members for any purpose at voting perimeter.
Adding that there is no provision for addressing delegates at the voting; hence, delegates must not congregate at the voting perimeter.
These protocols, according to the party is to ensure the integrity and fairness of the electoral process.
It urged delegates and contestants to comply with the directives outlined by the party to ensure that the electoral process was smooth, transparent and devoid of any chaos.
On security, it said the police will be heavily present at all centres across the country to ensure that there is order before, during and after the election.
It added that, the police in collaboration with the Electoral Commission (EC) has been mandated to prevent delegates from entering the voting area with phones or any photographic gadgets; while influencers, "machomen" have also been warned to stay off the voting perimeter or risk being arrested by police.
Polls
It said polls will start at 7a.m. and close at 2p.m. and there would not be any proxy voting and no constituency would be allowed to replace the names of deceased delegates in the albums to be used for the voting.
“The EC may decide to create additional polling centres at a voting centre to speed up the process if the number of delegates is large,” it said.
“All voting will take place in an open place in the full glare of the public.
It is an offence for non-accredited persons to enter the voting perimeters,” it stated.
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Polls will start at 7a.m. and close at 2p.m. and there would not be any proxy voting and no constituency would be allowed to replace the names of deceased delegates in the albums to be used for the voting.
