NPP calls for calm over polling station elections

The National Chairman of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP), Freddie Blay, has directed all polling station and electoral area executives of the party to comply with the new directive of making available the application forms to all eligible party members who wish to partake in the polling station elections.

The directive comes in the wake of some controversies in respect of the processes to secure nomination forms in some constituencies.

Strongholds of the ruling party hardest hit it by the spate of controversies is the Ashanti Region, where nomination forms that were to be used became a source of fight among constituency executives and agents of top party apparatchiki.

Addressing a press conference on Monday, the NPP National Chairman said all polling station and electoral area executives were to comply with the new directive.

Assurance

Mr Blay assured all eligible candidates that the party would take steps not to deny any of them nomination forms, adding that the party had made available adequate forms for all the 38,632 polling stations across the country to facilitate the smooth conduct of the exercise.

He pointed out to party rank and file that the leadership had been monitoring this process keenly since it started, assuring that notwithstanding all the controversies, adequate preparations had been put in place by leadership to ensure a smooth process across all constituencies in the regions.

“First and foremost, the process of election of Polling Station Executives commenced from Saturday, February 19, 2022 with Opening of Nominations and Closing on Monday, February 21, 2022.

“Per an earlier release by the General Secretary, vetting of prospective aspirants will be from Tuesday, February 22, 2022 and ends on Thursday, February 24, 2022. Subsequent to this will be the conduct of the Polling Station Election from Friday, February 25, 2022 and ends on Saturday, March 5, 2022,” he noted.

He also urged all party stalwarts who wanted to purchase the forms for aspirants to channel the money for the forms through the party headquarters.

Anxiety

He cited some of the areas hit by confusion. “A few are Kade Constituency, Manhyia North, Bosome Freho, Ninmgo Prampram amongst others. There are also videos of disturbances being circulated on social media platforms as a result of purported instances where party people have been denied access to buying of the polling station application forms,” he added.

According to him, the situation had compelled the national executive of the party to extend the closure of nominations, which was scheduled for February 21, 2022 to yesterday February 22, 2022.

He emphasised that the party is still committed to breaking eight-year cycle of governance haunting the NPP to prove that it is still the party of natural choice to ordinary Ghanaians.

“The National Leadership of the Party is per this press conference directing all Polling Stations/ Electoral Area Elections Committees to make available the application forms to all eligible party members who wish to partake in this polling station elections,” he added.

He also pointed out that, with immediate effect, the party was dispatching officers to reported areas of disturbances for fact-finding and investigations so that, where necessary, disciplinary sanctions would be applied.

He said the leadership was aware of reports that some leading personalities had procured application forms for aspiring polling station executives. He advised that any such matters relating to financial support in this process must be channeled through the party’s national secretariat “for uniformity, fairness and accountability”.