NPP Presidential election: Execute duties without fear - Prof. Oquaye to Police, EC

The Chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) Presidential Elections Committee (PEC), Prof Mike Oquaye, has urged the Ghana Police Service and the Electoral Commission (EC) to execute their respective roles without fear or favour.

He said it was to ensure a successful conduct of the November 4 presidential primaries that the party established the PEC to advance the cause of the party as a champion of democracy in the country.

Prof Oquaye said this in Accra yesterday when the Police Administration led by the Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Dr George Akuffo Dampare, met members of the PEC and the EC.

Present at the meeting were the General Secretary of the NPP, Justin Frimpong Kodua; the Deputy Chairman of the EC in-charge of Operations, Samuel Tettey, who led the EC’s delegation, and representatives of the various aspirants.

It forms part of a series of engagements between the three entities to ensure a transparent, free and fair exercise on November 4. 

Advise

Prof. Oquaye stated that the entire exercise would be superintended over primarily by the EC and the police and advised all party members to abide by the rules and regulations laid down prior to the exercise. 

“Our General Secretary is here to reinforce the fact that this is the approach of the party. No minister, no official, members of my committee or I has any jurisdiction over you,” the former Speaker of Parliament stressed.

No stone unturned

The Deputy Chairman of the EC in-charge of Operations, Mr Tettey, for his part, reiterated the readiness of the commission for the exercise.

He added that the series of engagements were necessary in order to prepare adequately and to ensure that the entire exercise was successful because they were aware that the elections were not only important to the NPP but to the nation as well.

“We have issues like recruitment of officials for the elections, printing of ballots, issues relating to agents who will be representing candidates at all the polling stations, and so many others.

So we are doing all we can to make the elections successful, and we will plead with other stakeholders to help the commission have a successful election,” said Mr Tettey.

For his part, the IGP, Dr Dampare, assured the party of a strong police presence during the elections.

He said the Ghana Police Service would continue to play its role when it came to internal party and national elections in order to deepen the nation’s democracy.

“All we require from you is that you support us in order to play our roles and with that we will be able to ensure that the police and the EC will do their work and all the people who will be voting across the country will come out freely and willingly to vote and all the agents will do what they are supposed to do,” he said.

Dr Dampare noted that the Ghana Police Service had successfully conducted a similar exercise for the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) and used the opportunity to thank all the political parties, particularly the NPP, for accepting to collaborate and engage.

“We have worked with the party for nearly two years now to position its leaders across all the levels from constituency, regional, national and now working towards electing a presidential candidate,” he said.

“The first leg, we worked together, and we were able to have a successful exercise.

We have the second leg of that exercise, and we also look forward to the final leg next year as you elect your parliamentary candidates,” the IGP added.