The General Secretary of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), John Boadu, has revealed that the elections conducted by the party at the regional level was hotly contested and competitive.

Mr Boadu indicated that the background of the candidates who contested suggests that they are “serious people who intend to run this party” for the NPP to win the 2024 elections. He noted that elections have so far been conducted in 15 out of the 16 regions in the country and has been good.

“… So, we expected these kinds of arrangements and this kind of enthusiasm and participation… It was hotly contested and competitive. I want to thank all those who were involved, the delegates, participants, those who lost, those who won, the electoral commission, security agencies and all who helped to ensure that all these fifteen regions have been able to successfully hold their regional annual delegate conference in addition to holding elections to elect their regional officers.”
John Boadu

Mr Boadu highlighted that despite the generally smooth elections held in these regions, there were some few incidents recorded in the central region. He recounted that a gentleman who applied to contest as chairperson in a constituency was disqualified by the vetting committee based on some altercation he had with the regional chairman.

Altercation in central regional election

The NPP General Secretary explained that the gentleman was disqualified at the constituency level following a complaint filed by the regional chairman over insults hurled at him. Mr Boadu revealed that the gentleman in question appealed to the the Appeals Committee of the party chaired by Prof Foley. He emphasized that the committee recommended that having heard the “kind of insults that this gentleman hurled at the regional chairman, he should privately apologize to him and again publicly apologize to him for such behaviour”.

“… At the end of the exercise, the committee brought another report that indicated that the gentleman has done so, so he should be allowed to contest.”
John Boadu

Mr Boadu opined that the regional chairman was not satisfied with the apology rendered by the young man per the directive that was given. He explained that the issue was later put before the national council meeting and the Council recommended that the Alternative Dispute Resolution Committee should handle the issue by listening to the apology and determine whether it’s an “unqualified apology or qualified”.

“Unfortunately, their recommendation didn’t come early.”
John Boadu

Mr Boadu expressed that the matter was later taken to court and the party has decided to go by the court’s decision and also look “internally how quickly we can resolve the issue for us to be able to hold the election very soon”.

Meanwhile, the General-Secretary of the NPP has expressed his interest to re-contest in the upcoming national election. He indicated that he is set to officially declare his intention by launching his campaign on Tuesday, May 31, 2022.

“My team has decided that I’ll be launching my campaign on Tuesday, 10 am at Alisa Hotel, to let the Ghanaian people and the party people know that we have opened nomination for persons who want to contest at the National level.”
John Boadu