The governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) has put on hold its planned parliamentary primaries in the Kwadaso, Gushegu, and Dormaa Central constituencies.
The parliamentary election is scheduled to be held on Saturday, June 20, 2020, however, the General Secretary of the party, John Boadu at a press conference on Monday said the three constituencies have been excluded from the exercise due to some disagreements that need to be resolved first.
According to Mr. Boadu, the party wants to ensure that the candidate that will be elected will be supported by everyone.
“Constituency primaries in Kwadaso in the Ashanti Region has been suspended until further notice. They have issues with the album that we’ve not finished addressing so on the 20th of June, 2020 Kwadaso constituency will not be part of the primaries. Gushegu constituency in the Northern Region has also been suspended until further notice. Dormaa constituency in the Bono Region has been suspended until further notice”.
“Dormaa central constituency very soon after some program has been put in place, we will announce the details for the said constituency and what needs to be done. I can assure you that the party is working so hard to ensure that, there will be peace and harmony these constituencies in order for us to be able to get a candidate that everyone would support in these constituencies,” he disclosed.”
What are the issues in the suspended constituencies
In the Kwadaso Constituency, according to Mr. Boadu, the album which will be used for the elections has issues that the party intends to address in order to present an album that will be accepted by all contesting parties.
In respect of the Gushegu constituency, the Member of Parliament for the Constituency, Dr. Ziblim Iddi has stepped down from the upcoming primaries.
Some youth of the party say the withdrawal of the MP from the race is based on the fact that a disqualified candidate Mahama Osman is being sponsored by NPA Boss Alhassan Tampuli and Deputy Minister of Energy, Mohammed Amin Adam to contest.
They say they will resist any attempt by the national executives to allow the disqualified candidate to run and threatened to ‘turn Gushegu upside down.’
Meanwhile, in the Dormaa constituency, some irate NPP youth in the area last Friday, June 5, 2020, set ablaze some properties at the constituency office.
The youth are believed to be supporters of the MCE, Iddrissa Ouattara, who was an aspirant in the constituency primaries but has been disqualified.
They argued that his exclusion from the race is part of a plot to ensure that the incumbent Member of Parliament and Health Minister, Kwaku Agyeman Manu goes to the polls unopposed.
About the NPP primaries
The New Patriotic Party (NPP) has cleared 368 aspirants to contest in the party’s June 20 parliamentary primaries.
The number includes sixty-five aspirants (65) who are going unopposed in the New Patriotic Party’s (NPP) primaries slated for June 20, 2020.
The election which was supposed to have come off on April 25, 2020, was postponed indefinitely due to the outbreak of COVID-19 in the country and the related restrictive measures announced by the President.
At a Steering Committee meeting held on Monday, June 1, 2020, the party agreed to hold the election in electoral areas rather than at the constituency level in order to ensure social distancing.
But with the easing of some of the COVID-19 induced restrictions, some aspirants have resumed some level of the campaign ahead of the elections.
