The governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) has suspended its April 25, 2020 parliamentary primaries indefinitely in accordance with the President’s ban on public gatherings in the wake of the Coronavirus pandemic in Ghana.
The decision to suspend the primaries was decided at a National Steering Committee meeting held yesterday, Tuesday, April 14, 2020.
NPP was to use the primaries to elect parliamentary candidates in constituencies where it has sitting Members of Parliament, ahead of the 2020 general elections.
Portions of the NPP’s statement concluded by saying: “In the light of this development, the party is unable to hold the primaries as planned, and has accordingly postponed same till further notice.
The party regrets all inconveniences that this may occasion, and hopes to hold this crucial exercise, sooner than later.”
The NPP has 169 sitting Members of Parliament out of the total 275 seats in parliament.
The party has already held primaries for orphan constituencies; areas that did not have sitting Members of Parliament.
Nomination fee for the parliamentary primaries was pegged at GH¢20,000 and an additional GH¢200,000 for filing of forms.
The leadership of the party also charged all aspiring parliamentary candidates other than the sitting Members of Parliament a “Party Development Fee of GH¢30,000”.
Nominations were opened on January 20, 2020, and closed on Thursday, February 20. President Nana Akufo-Addo also filed his nomination forms to contest in the NPP’s presidential elections scheduled for the same date as the parliamentary primaries.
He is expected to contest unopposed as he was the only one to have picked forms and submitted same as of the Thursday, February 20, deadline for filing of nominations.
Source: Fiilafmonline/CitiNews
