The ruling New Patriotic Party may handpick its parliamentary candidates if it is unable to hold primaries to elect representatives for the December 2020 elections.
The NPP’s general secretary, John Boadu, made this announcement and added that the party’s constitution empowers the National Executive Council to select candidates if the circumstances justify it.
“If it becomes impossible for us to hold our primaries and the Electoral Commission insists on going ahead with the December 7 elections because it has protocols to make the election possible, the National Executive Committee can make a decision that persons X, Y, or Z should be the candidates of our party in constituency one, two or three,” Mr Boadu said.
“The decision will be made based on the dynamics on the ground. It will be made based on our own agreement.”
The good of the party
Asked about the probability, in such an event, that the party will select only incumbent MPs, Boadu dismissed the suggestion. It will not be possible to handpick sitting MPs exclusively, he said.
“It will not be that it is only incumbent Members of Parliament that may be allowed to run unopposed, because there are some constituencies where the incumbents have decided not to contest at all.
“I have received a letter from the Fomena MP, for example, saying that he is unable to contest for the seat again. In such constituencies, we have other people contesting.
“In 1992 after the presidential elections, the National Executive Committee decided that, irrespective of the chances of any of our parliamentary candidates in the 230 constituencies, they were all not going to contest. So we reserve the right not to file any candidate.
“In 2004, we decided against filing a candidate in the KEEA [Komenda Edina Eguafo Abirem] constituency. So, there are a number of instances where the NEC has made decisions like this and it has always been for the good of the party,” Boadu said.
Atsu Boye
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