The New Patriotic Party (NPP) will today open nominations for aspiring parliamentary candidates in constituencies where the party has sitting Members of Parliament.
While the nominations are expected to close on December 25, 2023, the party has fixed January 27, 2024, to conduct the final leg of its internal election to elect its parliamentary candidates.
Already, some aspirants such as Michael Oquaye Jnr., Roni Nicol, Hayford Siaw, Alois Mohl and Bice Osei Kuffuor alias Obour are ready to contest to represent the party in the Dome-Kwabenya, Ablekuma West, Nsawam-Adoagyiri, Nandom and Asante Akyem South respectively.
The others are Kwasi Kwaning-Bosompem, who will be seeking to unseat the incumbent Kennedy Nyarko Osei; Commissioner of Police (retd) Alex Mensah for Bekwai and Raphael Agyapong for Bantama.
Another area of interest will be the Fomena constituency, where the incumbent, Andrew Asiamah Amoako, won the seat as an independent candidate after quitting the NPP.
However, he has been the bargaining chip for the ruling NPP and is also the Second Deputy Speaker of Parliament.
It is unclear how many sitting MPs will be seeking re-election.
From history, some incumbent MPs indicate they would not be seeking re-election but turn around to contest.
Forms
Ahead of the opening of the nominations, a December 11, 2023 statement signed and issued by the General Secretary of the NPP, Justin Frimpong Kodua, said no aspirant should be denied access to nomination forms.
“An aspiring parliamentary candidate denied access to the nomination forms at the constituency shall purchase same at the regional secretariat, and if denied, same may be downloaded from the party’s website (www.newpatrioticparty. org).
It said forms printed from the party’s website should be submitted to the general secretary at the national secretariat of the party in Accra and aspirants who downloaded nomination forms from the party’s website should, upon submission, show proof that they were denied an opportunity to purchase the forms at both the constituency and regional levels.
Filing fees
The statement said the nomination forms would be sold at GH¢3,000 while aspirants shall pay a non-refundable filing fee of GH¢35,000.
“Women, Persons with Disability and the youth shall be granted a 50 per cent rebate on the filing fee.
For emphasis, a youth is an individual between 18-40 years,” it said.
In addition, aspirants are to pay a non-refundable Development Fee of GH¢40,000 while all payments shall be made in Banker’s Draft to the New Patriotic Party National Headquarters, Accra.
Appeals
Additionally, it said there shall be a National Parliamentary Appeals Committee to decide on appeals from disqualified parliamentary aspirants from Wednesday, January 10, 2024, to Friday, January 12, 2024 (if any), with the deadline for the submission of appeals to the National Parliamentary Appeals Committee being Tuesday, January 9, 2024.
It stated further that detailed rules and regulations for the parliamentary primaries would be attached to the nomination forms which would be made available to aspiring parliamentary candidates upon purchasing of forms.
The statement reiterated the party’s commitment to free, fair and transparent parliamentary primaries and called for the support of all stakeholders.