NPP BROKE...DELEGATES STRANDED

Posted on: www.dailyguideghana.com

By William Yaw Owusu

Friday, October 17, 2014

Barely a day to the crucial national delegates’ congress to elect flagbearer, the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) is struggling to raise funds for the election.

There are widespread concerns that the much anticipated election might not come off as scheduled but some members including immediate past General Secretary Kwadwo Owusu Afriyie aka Sir John have vowed to resist any attempt by the National Executives to postpone the all important event.

According to Sir John, the party has no money and accused the national officers of not telling the public the actual situation on the ground and asked them to find innovative ways of raising funds for the tomorrow election.

As at yesterday, the party has not been able to send money to the various constituencies where voting is taking place, creating apprehension among delegates.

In spite of the concerns, National Chairman who styles himself leader, Paul Afoko has been on various networks assuring the party’s rank and file that the election will surely go ahead.

He said that the executives have already sorted the Electoral Commission (EC) who are mandated to supervise the election in terms of the register and other related issues but declined to discuss other matters in the media including how to finance the over 141,000 delegates.

Sources within the party said all NPP MPs have been impressed upon to aid the process by supporting delegates in their respective constituencies on election day.

The MPs are said to have voted GH¢10 for each of their respective delegates. The MPs are also ready to support additional 15 orphan constituencies where the party have no seats by voting GH¢70,000 from their pockets.

The rest of 137 constituencies DAILY GUIDE learnt would have to be taken care of by the party and there is no money in the kitty to pay the delegates from the orphan constituencies.

Due to financial constraints, the Afoko-led executives are said to have persuaded Hackman Owusu Agyemang who is immediate-past Chairman of the party’s Finance Committee to sign for the release of GH¢140,000 in the party’s coffers to support the process.

Additionally, they have also gone into the party’s forex account which Afoko accused Kojo Opare Hammond of concealing and misappropriating the funds and asked the signatories to release $60,000 to support the exercise.

Sources said the GH¢140,000 and the $60,000 were used in printing the ballot papers as well as take care of security for the election on Saturday.

The party’s finance committee chaired by former Chief of Staff Kwadwo Mpiani is yet raise funds since its inauguration about two months ago.

Rough estimates showed that the party needs GH¢700,000 to cater for delegates in the rest of 137 constituencies.

However, NPP General Secretary Kwabena Agyapong reportedly insisted that the party could afford half (GH¢5) of the estimate which will be GH¢35,000.

Furthermore, the plan to further task the three candidates to bring more cash to support the exercise was scattered eventually because those who opposed the idea were of the view that the party needed other innovative ways of raising funds.

The candidates: frontrunner Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, Alan Kwadwo Kyerematen and Francis Addai Nimoh have already coughed out GH¢10,000.00 and GH¢75,000.00 as nomination and filing fees respectively.

Additionally, Joe Ghartey, Kofi Osei Ameyaw Stephen Asamoah Boateng and Dr. Kofi Konadu Apraku have all paid similar amounts when they contested the August 31 super delegates congress that selected the current three candidates, translating to almost GH¢600,000.

This amount was said to have been blown on the limited voter registration exercise for monitoring leaving the party cash-strapped.

As it is, some of the delegates especially those in the urban centres might not receive their transportation for the process and it was unclear if it is a move to ensure voter apathy so that the turnout would be lower than expected.

The General secretary is said to have told concerned party people that those who reside close to the polling centres should bear their own transport cost and feeding, meaning that the GH¢5 he claimed he was ready to pay is not even feasible.

Attempts made to reach him were unsuccessful.

An sms text message sent to him phone was unresponded as at press time.

Congress

Paul Afoko and the General Secretary, Kwabena Agyepong on Wednesday said everything was set is anything to go by, then all seems to be set for coming Saturday’s crucial flagbearer elections for the congress.

“Everything is set for the election”, Mr Afoko said at a press conference held at the NPPs Asylum Down national headquarters  whiles asking the rank and file of the party to prepare for the real battle in 2016 after the election of a flagbearer to lead the party into the general elections.

This was followed by a set of ‘operating instructions’ read out by Kwabena Agyepong which included polling hours and admission to polling stations to guide the conduct of the elections.

Interestingly, it was only four out of the 12 national stearing committee members who were present at the press conference including 2^nd National Vice Chairman, Sammy Crabbe and National Women’s Organiser, Otiko Djabah.

Sources said the rest including 1^st National Vice Chairman, Freddie Blay and his colleague  3^rd  National Vice Chairman, F.F Anto, National Organiser, John Boadu, Youth Organiser, Sammi Awuku, Nasara Coordinator, Kamaldeen Abdulai and Treasurer, Abankwah Yeboah as well as Osei Kyei Mensah Bonsu, Minority Leader and CK Tedam, Chairman of the Council of Elders who are members were not informed about any such press conference.

Regulations

But as Mr Agyepong told reporters, Saturday’s poll would open at 7am for delegates to cast their votes and close at 3pm.

Only delegates who would be in the queue after 3pm will be allowed to vote.

For the purposes of identifications and verification of voters, it was stated “a presiding officer may, before delivering a ballot paper to a person to vote at the election, require the person to produce voter identification card or a party membership card in order to establish that the person is the voter whose name, picture and particulars appear in the album.”

This move is susceptible to manipulation and fraud since the party people were expecting proper accreditation for the polls.

Aside that, Mr Agyepong said “voting shall be by secret ballot and on first come first serve basis” insisting “all proxies should be eligible voters with their name on the proxy list and should also produce a copy of the proxy form.”

“After the close of poll in the presence of the agents of the candidates, the presiding officer shall be required to count the ballot papers at the polling station, record the total number of votes cast in favour of each candidate as well as total number of rejected ballots, sign a declaration and cause the agents to sign as to the results of the election and announce the results of the voting at that polling station”, he emphasized.