The ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) has justified its choice to limit voting rights exclusively to National Council members for the runoff election, intended to resolve the deadlock between Boakye Agyarko and Francis Addai-Nimoh.
The party has been criticized for restricting voting privileges to only the members of the National Council, the party’s second-highest decision-making body.
Boakye Agyarko, one of the aspirants, decried this move as unconstitutional.
“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.
According to Evans Nimako, the Director of Elections and Research, the NPP’s constitution lacks specific provisions on how a run-off should be conducted.
Therefore, the National Council’s decision to have council members as the sole voters for the run-off, scheduled for Saturday, September 2, was in line with the Presidential Elections Committee’s earlier stance. They confirmed the September 2 date and upheld the requirement that only council members could participate in the run-off.
However, the NPP later canceled the run-off, which was initially intended to decide between Francis Addai-Nimoh and Boakye Agyarko, following Mr. Agyarko’s withdrawal from the race.
In a letter addressed to Boakye Agyarko, Prof. Aaron Mike Oquaye, Chairman of the NPP’s Presidential Elections Committee, acknowledged Agyarko’s decision and announced the cancellation of the September 2, 2023 run-off.
This run-off was intended to determine which candidate would join the other four aspirants in the party’s presidential primary on November 4, 2023.
Boakye Agyarko had decided not to participate in the run-off, citing a breach of the party’s constitution in a letter dated August 31, 2023, and addressed to Prof. Aaron Mike Oquaye, Chairman of the NPP’s Presidential Elections Committee.
This decision followed a Special Delegates’ Conference held by the NPP the previous Saturday, during which the number of flagbearer hopefuls was reduced from ten to five.