Last Saturday, the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) held its Super Delegates Conference across the country, where 956 special delegates voted. This was part of the party’s democratic means to prune down the number of individuals who aspire to lead the NPP as its flagbearer for the 2024 General Elections.
Article 13(9) of the NPP Constitution says in an event that more than five contestants pick nomination forms to lead the party as the presidential candidate a Special Electoral College shall cast their votes by secret ballot, for the first five contestants to be shortlisted. In all, a total of 956 delegates were eligible to vote in Saturday’s polls to select five out of the ten aspirants for the November 4th presidential primary.
At the end of voting, all the ten distinguished gentlemen generally accepted the results without any objections, meaning the outcome of the highly contested polls was a true reflection of the delegates’ will. Though the Super Delegates Conference was generally peaceful and, therefore, worth acknowledging, we simply cannot lose sight of the pockets of isolated violent cases that were recorded at some polling stations.
For instance, it has been widely reported that the agent of Mr. Alan Kyerematen, Mr. Ali Zakaria, was allegedly assaulted in the North East Region, when he raised concern over a process he was unhappy with. He was said to have been hospitalised, following a hefty punch he supposedly received which nearly poked out his eye.
Pictures of the victim, which have since flooded social and other main stream media, show Mr. Zakaria’s eye swollen and almost closed.
To be fair, The Chronicle cannot independently state why Mr. Zakaria was allegedly assaulted neither can we mention the names of those behind this barbaric attack, because we were not present when the assault allegedly occurred. However, the paper is very much concerned about the alleged incident, because violent means of settling any misunderstanding or disagreement within or across political parties constitutes a real threat to our burgeoning democracy.
For example, the whole place could have been chaotic if the followers of Mr. Zakaria had retaliated with reprisal attacks. It is in the light of this that we are particularly worried about the pockets of violence that were recorded at some polling stations during Saturday’s Super Delegates Conference. Arguably, one may assume that the elections were held across all the sixteen administrative regions in the country, and, therefore, one or two incidents of violence could not have affected or taken the shine away.
In our estimation, freedom of expression and the right to vote and be voted for, as well as the conduct of free and fair elections, are cardinal to the practice of democracy and its sustenance.
In view of this, we view any form of violence or assault of any kind during any political party activities to exercise internal party democracy.
The Chronicle, therefore, wishes to draw the attention of the hierarchy of the NPP to this disturbing incident which nearly marred the beauty of the polls in the North East Region.
We call for a thorough investigation to ascertain the veracity of the allegation and punish the offenders.
As it stands now, the party would officially hold its final presidential primaries on the 4th of November to elect a presidential candidate to lead the party into the next general elections in 2024. It is, therefore, the belief of the paper that prompt condemnation would help the party to purge itself of the bad press the incident has received.
Political parties seeking the mandate of the electorate to rule the country must first of all exhibit higher level of intra party tolerance to prove that they can be trusted with the destiny of the country. Enough of the political violence!
