Political Scientist Dr. Amoako Baah has described the disqualification of some contenders in the upcoming parliamentary primaries of the NPP as inappropriate and undemocratic.
Also, he said, the idea of party executives deciding a candidate after a flawed primaries is problematic.
There is raging anger among some branch executives and supporters of NPP after the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the party upheld the disqualification of fifteen (15) aspirants by the vetting committee in the Eastern region.
Also, some aggrieved supporters and delegates of the party in the Asante Juaben constituency of the Ashanti region are demonstrating over the disqualification of a parliamentary aspirant Francis Owusu- Akyaw by party executives.
Speaking on the Morning Starr Monday, the former chairman-aspirant for NPP said “when you have a few people who decide, it means the party executives in that constituency decide for all of Ghana, and it shouldn’t be that way at all. Which means that this idea of party executives alone voting in the primary is wrong. this is what is creating all these problems.”
He went on “if we have the general population voting in the primaries and rightly so because in most constituencies when you win the primaries, you’ve won, which means the delegates decide who would represent them in that constituency, whether the person is good or not, doesn’t matter. If people want to challenge incumbents, you don’t disqualify them, you convince them. The executives can’t just sacrifice the ambition of aspirants like that. Let the party delegates decide. You cannot just take the decision to disqualify them. If an incumebt feels they have done done well, let the people decide.
He said even though one cannot do away with the system completely, if the party’s national and regional leadership crack their way, the constituency leadership will follow. “They’ve been silent, in some instances they are actually the people behind all these moves. It’s not appropriate, it is undemocratic.”
“If you want someone to go unopposed, convince the challengers to let them go, its very simple,” he ended.
Source: Ghana/Starrfm.com.gh/103.5FM
