The vetting committee of the Shama constituency of the NPP has cleared all 1, 400 party members who picked nomination forms to contest for executive positions at the polling station level.
Emmanuel Mark Ackon, member of the committee and constituency secretary, told journalists that this decision was to offer all the aspirants the opportunity to contest the elections.
He said it was also to avoid a situation where some of them would be accusing the committee of disqualifying aspirants wrongfully, adding “we want all the aspirants to go test the waters”.
Vetting process
According to Mr Ackon, 320 out of the total number of aspirants had been vetted as at 7pm on Wednesday February 23, 2022. He said another 5000, who converged at the party office for vetting on Thursday morning, were asked to go and pursue their respective economic ventures.
This, he said, followed the decision by the committee to vet the nomination forms instead of aspirants to help save time.
“The decision was to help ease congestion and also avoid any disaster at the party office, which is very close to the Takoradi-Accra highway. There were speculations that majority of the aspirants would be disqualified for their limited knowledge about the party’s rules and regulations,” he said.
According to reports, some of them do not even know the name of their constituency chairman while others are also being accused of preaching “skirt and blouse” during the 2020 electioneering campaign.
He noted that Article 3 of the NPP constitution spells out modalities for members seeking executive positions in the party. “These include possession of party cards, involvement in party activities and good standing in the party,” he added.
Meanwhile, reports indicate that majority of the polling station aspirants in the constituency fall short of these modalities. The vetting committee, however, insists all such members should be given the opportunity to test the waters by facing the 625 electoral college.
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