National Chairman aspirant of the main opposition New Patriotic Party, Paul Afoko says the party’s twice defeated presidential candidate and his running mate must not vote in the forthcoming annual delegates conference scheduled for Tamale on April 12.
Without mentioning names in a letter forwarded to the party’s election committee, Mr. Afoko says article 9 of the party’s constitution bars certain individuals including Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo and Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia from voting at such conferences.
According to the April 7, 2014 letter, “Section 2(i) of this article gives us the membership of the National Executive Committee. However, Section C (2ii) states that ‘Chairpersons of sector committees, past national chairpersons, past Presidential candidates, past running mates, past general secretaries, directors at the national secretariat and such other members as the national executive committee may determine shall be entitled to attend meetings of the national executive committee but without the right to vote.”
He wondered why the names of the exempted individuals have nonetheless been captured in the delegates register.
Afoko has, therefore, ordered his polling agents to be vigilant and prevent the exempted individuals from casting their ballot at the conference.
He said: “As a party that took the national electoral commission to the Supreme Court over irregularities and malpractices in the 2012 general elections in the country, we cannot afford to mess up our own internal elections”.
Furthermore, Mr. Afoko said issues concerning arrangements for proxy voting could throw the conference into chaos and has requested an urgent meeting of all aspirants, representatives of the national electoral commission and the NPP’s election committee on Friday to iron out issues.
