Director of elections for the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Evans Nimako, has revealed that some 204,144 delegates will vote to elect a presidential candidate for the party in the November 4 election.
According to him, although there have been some figures going round the media space concerning the number of delegates who will decide the fate of the aspirants, there has been some changes to the official number of delegates qualified to vote.
“Because you’ll not have the electoral area coordinators in Mampong voting as well as the constituency executives in Mampong. We are not having polling station executives, electoral area coordinators and constituency executives in Sunyani East voting. Therefore, the number as we have, putting all together is 204, 144 delegates across the country will be voting tomorrow.
Evans Nimako
In anticipation for the November 4 elections, Mr Nimako assured that the electoral process will be “very peaceful”. He explained that this is an exercise that all security arrangements that have been put together to ensure order.
“The security architecture is chaired by the IGP, and the level of discussions we’ve had, there’s assurance that the police will provide professional services to the party… If anybody has other thoughts of causing mayhem, I’ll advise it should be left in the minds of those people. Once it is exhibited, the Ghana Police Service is ready to confront those issue.”
Evans Nimako
Preparations of NPP for November 4 elections
Commenting on the preparations for the election so far, Mr Nimako stated that the party’s national council put together by the Oquaye committee has worked hand-in-hand with the presidential candidates, Electoral Commission and Ghana Police Service. To this end, he commended all stakeholders for the enormous contributions they’ve made towards having a very successful primaries tomorrow.
“… In view of the numbers, the party has decentralized the conference. So, the exercise is going to take place in all the constituencies across the country, with the exception of Sunyani East and we are looking at all polling stations across the 38,622 polling stations. All electoral area coordinators across the 6,272 constituencies, all constituencies’ executives, regional executives and committee members, members of parliament, our MMDCEs…”
Evans Nimako
Furthermore, Mr Nimako highlighted that the committee in collaboration with agents and presidential candidates, have put together the presidential guidelines which has a lot of contributions and professional advice from the Police Service and Electoral Commission.
He elaborated that per understanding and agreement, all issues relating to the conduct of the exercise in terms of the elections will be handled by the Electoral Commission.
“We’ve come very far, and the party appreciates that it’ll take all of us to be on the page to ensure that tomorrow’s exercise will be free and fair because the committee, chaired by Prof Mike Oquaye has provided the level playing field for all stakeholders. So, so far, the New Patriotic Party by God’s grace is ready to have this successful presidential primaries.”
Evans Nimako
Touching on the segregation of voting centers across the country, Mr Nimako assured that as much as possible and to a large extent, the party’s engagement with the key stakeholders have allayed the fears of delegates and members of the party of any untoward influences.
He revealed that there’ll not be any malfeasance because for each of the polling stations that the exercise will take place, there are guidelines that must be followed.
“You must be within the register to have access to the electoral and voting area, and that has been discussed with the candidates, police and EC. So, even the selection of the venue for the conduct of this exercise was done by the Electoral Commission… I can assure you that the level of engagement, agreements we’ve had, upon which we’ve had the guidelines that will be used for the conduct of the exercise, fears have been allayed and the exercise will be as smooth as you can imagine…”
Evans Nimako
READ ALSO: ‘Dirty Tricks Unit’ Of Bawumia Campaign Exposed
