Director of elections and research for the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Evans Nimako, has clarified some issues regarding the register for the party’s super delegates conferences slated for August 26.
According to him, the register for voting has not necessarily gone through cleaning, rather the party has undertaken some verification of delegates.
He revealed that the situation where the “party is undertaking a verification of the register has to do with the constituency registers that was moved from the constituency delegates conference for the selection of the constituency offices”.
Mr Nimako stated that in the case of the presidential primaries and the case of the Special Electoral College, the party constitution is clear, as stipulated in Article 13 (1) subclause 9.
With this, he explained that these delegates are national council members, national executive committee members, regional executive committee members, members of parliament, external branch submitting three delegates each, wing of the party i.e., youth, wing and others submitting three delegates each as well.
Additionally, he noted that foundation members of the party, who are elders who signed party documents that was submitted to the Electoral Commission before the party were issued the certificate and Council of Elders also form part of the delegates.
“So, for the purpose of this special Electoral College, the register has been given to the prospective candidates i.e., our principals who are contesting for this primary, for them to look through it and if they have any concern, they submit same to the presidential committee for consideration. So, this is not a register like the polling station register, electoral coordinators and constituencies register that is being verified across constituencies.”
Evans Nimako
Statement on application for proxy voting
Commenting on the application of proxy voting by delegates who may for one reason or the other be unable to vote on the day, Mr Nimako highlighted that in view of the fact that this is an election and all features of elections are applied, the party extended the opportunity to those who want their votes to be cast by their proxies to apply and submit same latest by 2nd of August, 2023.
He revealed that when these applications are received, the elections committee will compile them and give copies to the presidential candidates, so they are abreast with the list. With this, he emphasized that there will not be any additions to the total 961 delegates the party has.
“It’s also clear that the person to be appointed as a proxy must be a delegate to this Special Electoral College, and in addition, one person will not be allowed to have more than one proxy.”
Evans Nimako
Touching on the issue of some suspicion among the presidential candidates of the party with regard to machinations deployed to favor Vice President, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, who also happens to be an aspirant, Mr Nimako debunked such suspicions. He stated that to the best of his knowledge, all contestants are confident in the internal electoral processes of the party.
“As long as it remains suspicion, we will leave it as it is. The presidential aspirants met with the elections committee, and they are confident that the process that has commenced is free, fair and it is very transparent. When we met last Wednesday, they went through balloting by themselves, except three of them who were represented their agents. I will at this point urge all to rather look at the positives in the process, rather than to look at the hearsays and allegations that do not have basis…”
Evans Nimako
