Political Science lecturer and aspiring national chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Dr. Richard Amoako Baah, says process used in amending portions of the party’s constitution was unconstitutional.
Dr. Amoako Baah, who was speaking on Sunrise on 3fm, said process used by the party leadership contradicts provisions in the NPP’s constitution guiding amendment processes.
“The process that was used was wrong and unconstitutional. Article 18 of the NPP’S constitution says delegates shall cast their vote”
He made this observation following Sunday’s extraordinary delegates’ conference in Kumasi where some amendments to the party’s constitution were made.
Dr. Amoako Baah said, there ought to have been a proper voting system on issues instead of allowing delegates to vote with their voices which could not reflect the true position of the delegates.
According to him, the constitution states that amendment passed must be done by a two-third majority which he said could only be ascertained by counting votes cast.
He insisted that the decisions at the conference do not reflect the true position of party delegates.
“Proposal should have been disseminated to the constituency one month in advance to the delegates’ conference for the people to understand the issues at hand to be able to cast their votes accordingly,” he explained.
Dr. Amoako Baah further raised concerns about the party leadership communicating through English which is a barrier for some of the delegates.
“There is another larger issue, did we forget yesterday that many of our brothers and sisters are delegates and do not understand English? How were people who do not understand English supposed to understand what they were talking about to cast their ballot to change it.”
He described the action as unacceptable, adding it does not help in building democracy.
But F.F Anto, chairman of the constitutional amendment ad hoc committee, disagreed with Dr. Amoako Baah.
“I don’t agree with him,” he told 3FM News, noting that the voice vote is also accepted as a form of casting votes.
He was surprised that the lecturer failed to raise objection when the “rules of engagement” was communicated to delegates.
Asked how the chairman for the occasion was able to decides the two-third, he stated, “it depends on the intensity of the no” or otherwise.
Meanwhile, political analyst, Jonathan Asante Okyere though concurred with Dr. Amoako Baah, he said it would be a “suicidal mission” to ask the party to organise another conference to amend the constitution.
He stated categorically that the voice vote was “unscientific…it is quite bad” to determine the two-third.
By Irene Amesimeku|3news.com|Ghana