The ruling New Patriotic Party ahead of its parliamentary primaries has as part of measures given all youths, women and persons with disability who wish to run as parliamentary candidates for the party a 50% cut on the amount of money to be paid as filing fees and development levy.
This will mean that any of such aspirants in the categories instead of paying the full amount of 20,ooo cedis for filing will pay 10,ooo Cedis instead. The amount of 15,000 Cedis will be paid instead of the 30,000 cedis stipulated for the development levy.
However, the price of the forms for all who wish to contest in the primaries is 2,000 Ghana Cedis. According to the party’s director of research and elections, Mr. Evans Nimako, in the party’s arrangements anyone who wishes to contest must have been a member of the party for at least two years, must not be faulted by the constitution of Ghana as stipulated in article 94 and must be 21 years and above. He or she must also be a Ghanaian without citizenship in another country and of sound mind.
Speaking on why sitting members of parliament are not to pay the amount of 30,000 Ghana Cedis as Development Levy, Mr. Nimako said “in the running of the party, people who are elected members of parliament have commitments they make to the running of the party. That is why if you are an MP seeking to run as the party’s candidate, it is seen that you have made enough contributions when it comes to development. So our brothers and sisters who are now coming in would have to make their contributions to the development of the party notwithstanding the fact that he or she has already made contributions to the party to help it organize the conference ahead of us”
Qualification
Mr. Nimako also noted that for anyone to qualify to run for the primaries, he or she must be a party member of good standing and over 21 years old. The forms can be purchased at the various party secretariats and pick up their forms at a cost of 2000 cedis to be paid into an account. After this, the aspirant can get a form from the constituency parliamentary vetting committee at their various constituency offices using the bankers’ draft.
Contesting Constituencies
The elections will be held in the 168 constituencies where the party currently has sitting members of parliament. The number was initially 169; however, Ayawaso-West Wuogon is now an exception because per the party’s rules, any candidate who comes into power through a by-election must run again unopposed.
The party last year held primaries in the remaining 106 constituencies that make up the total of 275 constituencies in the country which they called orphaned constituencies.
Vetting & Elections
According to the Party’s arrangements, vetting will start from the 28th of February to the 8th of March,2020. After this, the list of qualifiers will later be submitted to the national parliamentary vetting vommittee for campaigns to start. April 25th is slated for the extra-ordinary delegates conference where delegates are to elect a candidate for each of the 168 constituencies.
APPEALS
Disgruntled candidates can after the elections appeal to the national parliamentary appeals committee. They will investigate the matters and submit their findings to the national executive committee through the party general secretary. Chair of the committee is Former chair and campaign manager, Mr. Peter Mac-Manu. Others include Dr. Kwame Addo-Kuffuor and Madam Elizabeth Ohene.
