The governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) has strongly defended its decision to allow only members of the National Council to vote in the run-off, which was scheduled to break the tie between Boakye Agyarko and Francis Addai-Nimoh.
The party argues that it did not break any laws when it asked only the National Council of the party to vote in the run-off, which was being organized on Saturday, September 2.
The Council, which is the second-highest decision-making body of the party, has been criticized, including by fellow aspirant Boakye Agyarko, who described the decision to allow only National Council members to vote on Saturday as unconstitutional.
In an interview on Eyewitness News, the Director of Elections and Research, Evans Nimako said the party only upheld its own rules.
“If you look at the party’s constitution, there is no provision that says that this is how a run-off would be conducted. So we are saying that the National Council did not depart from the position of the Presidential Elections Committee. The National Council has only given the modalities for the conduct of the run-off, and so the September 2 date, given by the Presidential Elections Committee, has been confirmed by the National Council. The National Council only said that the delegates for the run-off will be members of the council,” he said.
NPP calls off run-off
The NPP called off its September 2, 2023 run-off scheduled to break the tie between two flagbearer hopefuls –Francis Addai-Nimoh and Boakye Agyarko.
This follows the withdrawal of Mr. Agyarko from the race.
“We take notice of your decision to withdraw from the contest and therefore the run-off election scheduled for Saturday, September 2, 2023, will no longer be held,” Prof. Aaron Mike Oquaye, Chairman of the NPP’s Presidential Elections Committee, said in a letter addressed to Boakye Agyarko.
The run-off was being organized to break the tie between Mr Agyarko and Mr Addai-Nimoh to decide who would join the four aspirants in the party’s November 4 presidential primary.
Boakye Agyarko on August 31, refrained from the run-off election after accusing the party of breaching provisions of their constitution.
“I refuse to be a part of such an act that seeks to unjustly truncate a previously agreed upon process, and cannot be part of what is about to be done on Saturday, 2nd September 2023. I cannot, with a clear conscience make such an impermissible concession to such an errant decision. I, therefore, respectfully, serve this notice to refrain from such a contest. As always, I wish the party well,” he said in a letter addressed to Prof. Aaron Mike Oquaye, Chairman of the NPP’s Presidential Elections Committee, dated August 31, 2023.
The NPP held a Special Delegates’ Conference last Saturday to reduce its flagbearer hopefuls from ten to five.
