NPP makes U-turn ; Over Affirmative Action
The New Patriotic Party (NPP) has reverted its earlier decision to allow female MPs to go uncontested by male aspirants following internal party hue and cry over the decision.
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Consequently, all female Members of Parliament (MPs) will be contested by male aspirants during the parliamentary primaries of the party, which is now scheduled for June 13, instead of May 24.
This forms part of the review of the roadmap towards the parliamentary primaries by the National Council (NC) of the party, which met yesterday to take a second look at the decision taken by National Executive Committee (NEC) on the affirmative action.
Background
The National Chairman of the NPP, Mr Paul Afoko, yesterday summoned a higher authority of the party, the National Council, to an emergency meeting to take a second look at the whole proposal put forward by the National Executive Committee for the conduct of the party’s parliamentary primaries.
Following the hue and cry from party members across the country after the NEC approved the road map towards the organisation of parliamentary primaries which sought to ban male contestants from contesting female members of Parliament in the upcoming parliamentary primaries, the National Council meeting became imperative to iron out differences and the furore within the rank and file of the party.
Party members were, therefore, anxious about the outcome of the meeting which came off yesterday. Some political pundits argued that it would be disastrous to the electoral fortunes of the party in 2016, if such a policy was implemented, especially when the affected areas fall under difficult constituencies. They expressed the belief that the party was likely to lose those seats as a result of apathy.
Review of road map
The NC, however, at yesterday’s meeting, accepted the principle of affirmative action but directed that a comprehensive plan of an affirmative policy be drawn for adoption and implementation during the party’s next congress in November 2015.
The NC also varied the road map leading to the parliamentary primaries and fixed April 30 for the close of nominations.The NC further fixed May 4 to May 7 for the vetting of the aspirants and May 8 for the announcement of the results.
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The aspirants have the opportunity to submit their views on the vetting to the regional offices on May 11, and if there were residual matters, the matter could be submitted to the national office for adjudication on May 13.
The NC also approved May19 for the publication of the notice of polls in all the 275 constituencies in the country for the elections to come off on June 13.
On the coastal constituencies, the NC said as much as possible aspirants who are indigenes would be encouraged to contest the Parliamentary primaries to ensure that they secure those seats for the party in the 2016 elections.
Protests
Earlier, during the National Council meeting some women splinter groups within the New Patriotic Party (NPP) from Ablekuma West Constituency besieged the premises where the meeting was taking place, calling for equal opportunity for females and men. The demonstration was meant to mount pressure on party heads who were locked up in the crunch meeting to rescind the controversial affirmative action policy.
The party has known no peace ever since it announced a policy banning men from contesting 16 incumbent women Members of Parliament as well as restricting non-indigenes from contesting in some selected coastal areas in Accra.
The affirmative action policies are to shore up the number of women in Parliament as well as give the opportunity to Ga indigenes in the coastal areas to represent their constituencies.
However, the policies have widely been criticised, forcing the party to make a u-turn.