The ruling New Patriotic Party could organize its much-anticipated parliamentary primaries in the first week of June, 2020. The party could as well consider organizing popular acclamation for sitting members of parliament running unopposed, through social media. This was revealed by the Western Region Chairman of the New Patriotic Party, Mr. Francis Ndede Sia in an interview with Mpimpimhene Nana Gyetuah of Skyy Power FM in Takoradi.
Mr. Ndede Sia stressed that time is running out for the party, and as such, the party will find possible means of organizing the primaries despite the existing restraint on public gatherings.
“We are considering first week of June. It is going to be difficult, but if government lifts the social distance restrictions, we will conduct the primaries as it is. But if it is still in force, we will find a way to do it from electoral area to electoral area and still respect the protocols, because we cannot wait,” he indicated.
However, some aspirants have petitioned the National Parliamentary Appeals Committee of the party to reverse the decision of the vetting committee. The committee is yet to publish its final report but Mr. Francis Ndede Sia indicates the report has delayed because the committee is unable to hold meetings due to the coronavirus outbreak. He is however optimistic the Western Region list of qualified applicants which is out in the media will remain unchanged
“With the report I have, we have about five constituencies running unopposed in the western region and that has still not changed. And for those running unopposed, we can easily conduct popular acclamation for them by the power of social media, we can still conduct it. My problem is where we have contests. But we will find a way out,” he noted.
The New Patriotic Party (NPP), last month, suspended its parliamentary primaries which was originally scheduled for April 25, 2020 to elect parliamentary candidates to represent the party in the 2020 general elections. The elections were to be conducted at constituencies where the party had sitting members of parliament.
