Kennedy Agyapong cast ballot at Assin Central constituency in NPP presidential primary
Kennedy Ohene Agyapong voted at the Assin Central constituency of the Central Region in the NPP presidential primary.
He is in the flagbearer race as one of the keen contestants with Dr Mahamudu Bawumia.
Today’s presidential primary of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) can only produce a winner if any of the five candidates obtains more than 50 per cent of the votes.
Anything short of that will call for a run-off between the two leading candidates in 14 days.
The Deputy Director of Research, Monitoring and Evaluation of the Electoral Commission (EC), Fred Tetteh, told the Daily Graphic that this was in accordance with the party’s presidential primary rules.
"Results will be declared at the NPP headquarters. An outright winner must secure more than 50 per cent of valid votes cast," he said.
Former Member of Parliament (MP) for Assin Central, Kennedy Ohene Agyapong; former Minister of Food and Agriculture and MP for Abetifi, Dr Bryan Acheampong; former Vice-President, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia; former Minister of Education and MP for Bosomtwi, Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum, and former General Secretary of the party, Kwabena Agyei Agyepong, are seeking the endorsement of 211,849 party delegates in today’s presidential primary, which will be run without biometric verification devices.
Instead, the party will make two voter registers available to verifiable delegates and eligible voters, with no opportunity for proxy voting.
Delegates on the electoral roll will cast their ballots at 333 polling centres in 276 constituencies nationwide. This includes the centre at the party headquarters in Accra, with the polls scheduled to open at 7 a.m. and close at 2 p.m.
Mr Tetteh said all logistics and materials, including ballot papers, electoral roll (album), ballot boxes, voting screens, indelible ink and other necessary materials, needed for the election had been sent to the regions and district offices.
Collation of results
He said district officers and their staff, including assistant electoral officers and secretaries, would manage all the 333 polling stations, adding that each centre would have a queue controller with an album.
Mr Tetteh said two registers would be used since the biometric verification machines would not be deployed for today’s exercise.
He said when polls closed, ballot papers would be sorted and counted at voting centres to fill and complete results sheets, with copies to be given to agents of each candidate.
Results would then be transmitted electronically to the regional office to be followed with a hard copy.
The EC Deputy Director said at the regional office, the director and deputies, along with agents of candidates, would tabulate results and send them electronically to the EC headquarters in Accra where a collation and national tally would be undertaken in the presence of agents of the five candidates.
Mr Tetteh gave an assurance that the commission was prepared to conduct a smooth and transparent election.
He stressed that the EC would handle the election with integrity, fairness, and transparency, and urged all stakeholders, including security personnel, candidates’ agents and EC staff, to play their roles professionally.
"We expect everybody to play his or her role professionally," he said.
Mr Tetteh further urged delegates to abide by the rules of the poll, stressing that the EC would not allow anyone to vote if their name was not in the album.
"If anybody has an issue that cannot be solved at the polling centre, they can escalate it to the members of the Elections Committee," he said, indicating that issues with delegate names were not within the EC's mandate, but rather the responsibility of the presidential election committee of the party.
Guidelines
In a related development the NPP Presidential Elections Committee has announced strict security measures for the election
A statement signed and issued by the Secretary to the committee, William Yamoah, reiterated that the police had the exclusive responsibility for security activities, and only delegates, committee members, aspirants and their agents would be allowed beyond the security perimeters.
It said delegates were required to carry their identification cards, including voter ID, party card, passport, or Ghana card, to verify their names at the initial security checkpoint.
Agents representing the presidential candidate aspirants may be stationed at the checkpoint to observe the preliminary verification of names against the voter register.
The committee has also advised delegates and agents to conform to all regulations and rules on the day of voting, as stated in the Presidential Elections Operation Guidelines.
Additionally, agents of the contestants are allowed to have their phones.
The committee has noted that there would be no accreditation for observers, and any interested persons visiting the voting centres are requested to abide by the directives of the EC and the Police.
