NPP primaries largely successful — Evans Nimako

The New Patriotic Party (NPP) National Director of Research and Elections, Evans Nimako, has said the just-ended parliamentary primaries of the ruling party were largely successful.

That, he said, was due to the strong collaboration with the Electoral Commission (EC), the Ghana Police Service, the party’s parliamentary candidates and the media.

Mr Nimako said this in an interview with the Daily Graphic.

He said the mechanisms put together by the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the party ensured transparency and provided a level playing field.

He said the party was also looking forward to reconciling the teams that participated in the January 27 contest that saw the elections of the party’s parliamentary candidates for the 2024 general election.

“We are urging all candidates who emerged victorious to exhibit magnanimity in their victory and extend an olive branch to their fellow contestants who were unsuccessful,” he said.

The party, Mr Nimako said, was also looking forward to consolidating its electoral gains in the constituencies where the primaries were held last Saturday and, above all, ensuring that the Flag bearer of the NPP, Vice-President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, would garner the overwhelming support to win election 2024.  

Yendi

Touching on the Yendi parliamentary primary that was disrupted during sorting and counting, the Director of Research and Elections said the party was waiting for the official report from the Regional Executive Committee to deal with the issue.

Meanwhile, the EC that was tasked with the exclusive responsibility to conduct the elections has said the party would have to decide on the next steps for the Yendi parliamentary primary, following the disruption of counting and destruction of ballot papers last Saturday.

No official winner has been declared by the EC.

While there is no official declaration, both candidates, Farouk Mahama and Abibata Shani, have independently claimed victory in the contest.

The Director of Electoral Services at the EC, Dr Serebuor Quaicoe, in an interview, emphasised that an official winner had yet to be determined.

"The feedback from the region is that we were not able to declare the results there," Dr Quaicoe said.

"From the Electoral Commission's point of view, we did not complete the process...

 Like I said, the party is conducting and we are supervising, so the party will have to make a decision," he added.

Twenty-eight sitting Members of Parliament (MPs) lost in the elections in their bid to return to Parliament, while another 19 of them did not seek re-election in the primaries.