NPP Opts For 'True' Democracy

NPP abandons consensus candidates’ idea
Primaries to be held in all constituencies with more than one aspirant
THE NEW Patriotic Party (NPP) has finally decided to abandon the earlier idea of building consensus in the selection of its parliamentary candidates for 2008 elections.

The party has decided to go ahead to hold primaries in all the constituencies that have more than one aspiring candidate in order to avert any unhealthy situation that could bring confusion and divisions in the party.

Mr. Ahmed Issahaku Tahiru, the Upper East NPP Regional Chairman dropped the hint when reached on phone for his reactions to some allegations leveled against the regional executives of the party by one of the aspiring parliamentary candidates who pleaded anonymity.

The anonymous aspirant alleged that the regional executives had held a secret meeting with one of his contestants to decide on where to hold the primaries, which according to him would amount to “electoral fraud”.

He explained that as a result of that meeting the regional executives had planned to years to another village. He believed that such last minute changes could disorganize and frustrate the other contestants and that if there should be a meeting, all the contestants must be present to avoid doubt and suspicion.

But Mr. Tahiru dismissed the allegation and described it as false alarm, explaining that the regional and national executives held a strategic planning workshop from morning till evening on the said day with core constituency executives drawn from all the thirteen constituencies in the region.

According to him, there was no aspiring parliamentary candidate around, suspecting that the aspirant who made the allegation might have been misinformed.

“All our interest is the one that is going to unite the people at end of the primaries; we don’t have special interest in any individual”, he said, noting, “that is why we have decided to abandon the idea of consensus candidates and we are going to have the primaries.”

The National Organizer of NPP, Mr. Lord Commey during the vetting of the party’s parliamentary aspirants said the party would build consensus in selecting some of the parliamentary candidates for the 2008 elections.

This brought about controversies within the party as some party members endorsed the idea while those viewed it as an “imposition” of parliamentary candidates rejected the idea completely.

To avoid recurrence of disunity among party members especially at the grassroot level, the party decided not to prevent any candidate from the primaries and leave the Electoral College to decide.

Meanwhile the party would organize primaries in all the orphan constituencies in Upper East Region that have more than one aspirant on Friday, August 17, 2007.

Information reaching The Chronicle indicated that Upper West Region finished its primaries on Wednesday, August 15, 2007.