Ashanti PPP reschedules constituency primaries

The Ashanti Regional office of the Progressive People’s Party (PPP) has rescheduled its constituency elections to concentrate on the ongoing voters exhibition exercise.

The party was to go to the polls on Saturday, October 25, 2014, to elect its constituency officers but had to reschedule the election to Saturday, November 1, 2014, due to the voters register exhibition.

The first batch of the elections covers the Atwima Nwabiagya South, Atwima Kwanwoma, Bosomtwe, Asawasi, Asokwa, Bantama, Kwadaso, Suame, Oforikrom, Nhyiaeso, Manhyia North and Manhyia South constituencies with the second batch of selected constituencies expected to follow soon.

The various positions are Constituency Chairman, Vice Chairman (two), Secretary, Assistant Secretary, Treasurer, Organiser, Assistant Organiser, Women’s Organiser, Assistant Women’s Organiser, Youth Organiser, Assistant Youth Organiser and Communication Officer.

The fee for the nomination form is GH¢10 while filing fee is pegged at GH¢30, with GH¢50 as filing fee for only the chairmanship position.

The Ashanti Regional Chairman of the PPP, Dr T.B. Kwofie, told the Daily Graphic that party members had started registering to contest for constituency positions, and called on all active card-bearing party members, especially the youth, to vie for the various positions to help the party take over power from the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) come December 2016.

He said, so far, the party was already more than prepared for the elections, adding that the exercise would be free from acrimony, with enthusiasm and unity being high ahead of the polls on Saturday.

Lesson from NPP’s rejected ballots

Asked whether the PPP had learnt a lesson from the number of rejected ballots in the just-ended presidential primary of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), he answered in the affirmative  and gave the assurance that nothing of that sort would happen in the PPP elections.

He, however, implored the PPP delegates to avoid associating themselves with any faction and rather endeavour to understand how voting was done to prevent or reduce rejected ballots.

In the NPP’s presidential primary, a total of 1,277 votes were recorded as rejected ballots as against 124,449 valid votes while 125,726 delegates participated in the voting exercise.