The Presidential Elections Committee of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) has said it has tightened the rules for the November 4 primary election, warning delegates to stay away from using fake proxy votes.
The chairman of the committee, Prof. Mike Oquaye, told the media after a five-hour closed-door meeting with representatives of the contestants yesterday that although proxy was a right, “the committee will determine the parameters that it can be used.”
Subsequently, all proxy will be verifiable by an affidavit “to establish justice.”
Prof. Oquaye said the decision was to discourage proxy as a means of buying or influencing votes in any manner whatsoever.
He, however, insisted that voting would be done in an open place for all to see.
He also said if the programme got interrupted by rain or any natural happening, the committee would decide on that.
However, Sammi Awuku, a spokesperson for Vice-President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia’s team, disagreed with the committee, saying the matter would be firmed up on Thursday.
While commending the committee for a good job done so far, Mr Awuku said the introduction of the affidavit system was alien to the party and amounted to disenfranchising all external branch members.
“We must not put impediments on the path of people willing to vote.
Using this as a condition precedent is strange.
“How do you expect all these people to prove that they are legal residents of those countries and how many of us living in the rural areas have access to the internet and all that,” Mr Awuku, who is also the Director-General of the National Lottery Authority (NLA), questioned.
He said he found the affidavit system discriminatory “but I will have to report to my team and see what happens on Thursday.
The committee is expected to fine-tune the rules for the election on Thursday.
The Vice-President, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, Member of Parliament for Assin Central, Kennedy Ohene Agyapong, former Minister of Food and Agriculture, Dr Owusu Afriyie Akoto, and a former MP for Mampong in the Ashanti Region, Francis Addai-Nimoh, are vying for the single slot to represent the party at the 2024 general election.
Alan Kyerematen, who finished third behind Dr Bawumia and Kennedy Agyapong in the Super Delegates Conference, pulled out at the last minute, citing unfair treatment and harassment towards his followers.