The National Democratic Congress (NDC) will hold its parliamentary primaries on Saturday without the participation of 15 constituencies as the party seeks to settle points of contention on multiple fronts.
These constituencies are: Akwatia, Ayensuano, Afram Plains South, and Lower West Akim in the Eastern Region; Manhyia South, Adansi Asokwa, and Mampong in the Ashanti Region; Ayawaso West Wuogon and Odododiodoo in the Greater Accra Region; and Amenfi East and Akontombra, respectively, in the Western and Western North regions.
The remaining areas are Tano North in the Ahafo Region, Gomoa Central, Assin North, and Effutu in the Central Region.
The party said it was working to find solutions for the issues surrounding the affected constituencies and that a new election date would be announced in due time.
The presidential primary would still take place in 275 constituencies nationally, according to the NDC’s acting director of elections, Daniel Amartey Mensah, with the exception of Manhyia South in the Ashanti Region, where it had been suspended along with the parliamentary primary.
He said that the branch executive delegates list was relevant to the Manhyia South presidential primary.
Thus, 217 constituencies would have their parliamentary primaries, with 15 being postponed and 44 having no opposition.
There will be 55,862 candidates nationwide that will run in the parliamentary primaries.
A total of 356,624 party delegates, according to Mr. Mensah, were anticipated to cast ballots in the presidential primary.
In addition to current Members of Parliament (MPs), former MPs, and government appointees, they also include branch, constituency, regional, and national executives, former national executives, NDC-appointed Article 71 office holders, and metropolitan, municipal, and district chief executives who worked for the party’s administration.
The rest are former Deputy and Ministers of State, Ambassadors, High Commissioners, Members of the Council of State, Presidential Staffers who are Article 71 Office Holders, Foreign Chapters, and NDC Professional Forum members who have been selected by the NDC.
It was originally planned for the election to take place in 276 seats, including the Santrokofi-Akpafu-Lolobi-Likpe (SALL) region, but a number of events forced the suspensions, according to Mr. Mensah.
Mr. Mensah declared that the party is prepared to hold the polls, which would, according to him, be managed by the Electoral Commission (EC) for a fee.
He claimed that in order to save time and assure efficiency, the party chose a decentralized strategy for the elections.
Voting would begin at 8 a.m. in all of the polling places where there were more than 1,200 delegates in order to ensure that the polls closed by the deadline of 4 p.m., he said.
He stated that while the final collation center for the presidential election will be at the party’s national headquarters in Accra, the results of the parliamentary primary elections would be announced at the constituency level.
The first set of ballots for the presidential primary had already been printed and delivered to the EC, according to Mr. Mensah, and the remainder would shortly follow.
He claimed that on Wednesday, the party leadership met with representatives of the three presidential contenders, Dr. Kwabena Duffuor, Kojo Bonsu, and former President John Dramani Mahama, to discuss election-related details. Copies of the voters’ register (albums) that would be used on election day were also distributed at the meeting.
Regarding the claimed problems with irregularities in the voters’ register brought up by Dr. Duffuor’s campaign team, Mr. Mensah stated that the problem had been resolved and if the team still had concerns, they could file a complaint with the party’s Functional Executive Committee rather than the EC.
The rest will be delivered to them in due course and would be relevant on election day, he said. “We gave out 228 copies of the photo albums to all the presidential aspirants for the elections last Wednesday,” he said.
