The most democratic political party in the Ghana, the New Patriotic Party (NPP), uses its National Delegates Congress to elect flag bearer. At the last congress in 2007, before the electoral congress was expanded, there were about 2,285 delegates.
The powers that be in the party thought that such a figure could easily be influenced.So, they decided the best way was to expand the College and include all polling station officers.
Which means that today, with the 33,367 polling stations, the ground base will have 166,835 delegates. In addition to constituency, regional and national officers among others, the electoral college could be close to 170,000.
The party then, came out with a Super Delegates Congress, which will vote to cut down the number of aspirants to five, if they are more than that.
The composition of the Super Delegates is, 276 constituency chairpersons, 272 regional executives and 137 MPs. Others include 60 regional reps to the National Council, 30 Council of Elders, 123 Founders, 3 reps from the Women Wing, 3 reps from the Youth Wing, 3 reps from the Nasara Wing and three reps each from the 25 international branches making 25.
The rest are all National Officers which could work out to 38, all former national officers and current and former presidents which stands at 2. We could be talking about maybe 1,050 delegates here.
This is where it gets confusing. If the Party is saying that 2,285 persons can be easily influenced, then what can’t be done with about 1,050 persons?
The Super Delegates Congress can be influenced and made to vote in a certain direction. For an example, it can be made to vote offer 90% for a particular aspirant and with that overwhelming result, NEC can decide that the wining candidate should be acclaimed flag bearer without meeting the National Delegates Congress.
Or, equally worse, the Super Delegates could be whipped into voting out the most popular aspirant.
So, the question is how are Ghanaians sure that the NPP Super Delegates can do a just and honest job? The issue still remains that how can it be assumed that 2,285 persons can be easily influenced and 1,050 cannot be?
It is about time that the NPP adopts a whole new approach to the selection and election of flag bearers. The Party may have to open the gates of campaigning about two years to Congress. All aspirants will have to go down to the grassroots and solicit endorsements from card-bearing NPP members of good standing, who have been members for at least five years and who are non-officers.
At least two rounds of campaigning should take place before the endorsement process begins. And no party member is to endorse more than one aspirant. So, after this endorsement, the top five highest aspirants will then be allowed to face the delegates at the National Congress.
After all is done, the National Delegates will go into Congress and pick the one who majority believe should lead the party.
Congress must be expanded to include all former MPs, former ministers and deputy ministers and all former government appointees.
All said, the Party must strengthen its laws to ensure that every aspirant is treated fairly for the sake of unity. This means that no one must attack any aspirant and no party executive or government appointee should be allowed to campaign openly for or against an aspirant. This means there should be no gathering of party members where a party executive officer, elected or appointed, and government officer or appointee will endorse an aspirant or campaign against another.
Today, some NPP MPs are said to be going round and begging their constituents to endorse an aspirant, if not they could lose their chance of re-election. If this is true, these MPs should know it is about time the Party move out of the era where parliamentary candidates are imposed on constituencies. This imposition has cost the Party a lot, as results of Election 2020 showed. No one must be allowed to impose any candidate on any constituency. The constituents must be allowed to freely elect the aspirant of their choice.
The rumours making round is that those MPs are begging their constituents not to elect Alan Kyerematen as flagbearer or he would kick out their chances of ever returning to Parliament.
The truth is, Alan will do no such thing. He has warned his Team, not to attack any aspirant; he has demonstrated that he can work with anybody irrespective of the fact that, that person maybe once against him. Alan believes in unity in the Party now, during and after the Primaries.
No MP should be scared of losing his or her position. It is their constituents who may freely decide they have another chance and there will be no strings pulled by Team Alan. Alan believes in unity and unity in diversity as well. Team Alan is made up people who were once against him; this is how warm hearted and tolerant he is.
The NPP must stand out as the most democratic party in Africa and the envy of all. No more Super Delegates, there should be zero tolerance for those party and government officers who endorse or condemn aspirants and no imposition of parliamentary candidates on constituents.
By Hon Daniel Dugan
The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect The Chronicle’s stance.
