NPP holds centralised conference in Tamale

The controversy that rocked the New Patriotic Party (NPP) over the form that its national delegates conference to elect new national officers should take has been laid to rest.

This follows the decision of the National Council to overturn the earlier directive by the National Executive Committee (NEC) to hold decentralised elections on March 1, 2014 to elect the national officers.

At a meeting in Accra, Tuesday, of the National Council, the highest decision-taking body after the national delegates conference, to deliberate on matters that had bedevilled the party in recent times, the members decided to hold the centralised conference in Tamale on April 12, as against the March 1, date that had been agreed upon earlier last month.

The party explained that its decision to hold the conference in Tamale in the Northern Region was to show solidarity with the people of the north. It is also in memory of the late Vice-President, Alhaji Aliu Mahama.

The meeting was chaired by the NPP National Chairman, Mr Jake Otanka Obetsebi-Lamptey, and was attended by former President J. A.  Kufuor; the Second Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Mr Joe Ghartey; the Minority Leader in Parliament, Mr Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, and two former National Chairmen, Mr Harouna Esseku and Mr Peter Mac-Manu.

It was also attended by all the newly elected regional chairmen and secretaries, as well as national dignitaries within the party.

The National Council also extended the mandate of the current national executive to April 12, 2014, the day of the national delegates conference.

 The NPP had been divided over whether to centralise or decentralise  the national delegates conference.

The NEC proposed the decentralised conference, citing financial and logistical challenges. 

Others, including some members of Parliament (MPs) of the party, rejected  the proposal and opted rather for a centralised conference.

They argued that  the centralised conference was consistent  with the  constitution of the party, which mandated the National Chairman, the General Secretary and the Treasurer to  present their reports at the event.

Per the party's calculations, it will cost it GH¢1.2 million to undertake a centralised exercise, whereas a decentralised one will cost GH¢250,000. 

But the NPP Minority in Parliament said a centralised national congress would rather cost the party GH¢686,000, not GH¢1.2 million as claimed by the NEC.

Mr Obetsebi-Lamptey had said the party was not in a sound financial state to organise a centralised election as it did four years ago when all the delegates converged on the Kumasi Sports Stadium.

But the MPs said their checks showed that a centralised election would cost GH¢686,000 for the about 5,600 delegates expected to participate in the conference.

Meanwhile, the National Council has assured  party members that all other processes and arrangements for the filing of nominations and vetting remain unchanged.