The New Patriotic Party (NPP) in Ghana currently constitutes its electoral college with a wide base of delegates drawn from all levels of the party structure. This includes members of the National Executive Committee, National Council, regional and constituency executives, as well as all Members of Parliament (MPs) on the party’s ticket.
Also included are electoral area coordinators, council of elders, patrons, founding members, and representatives from key party wings such as the Women’s Wing, Youth Wing, TESCON (Tertiary Students Confederacy), and external branches abroad.
For the 2023 flagbearer election, the NPP expanded its electoral college to include over 200,000 delegates nationwide, aiming to broaden grassroots participation. The electoral college plays a central role in selecting the party’s presidential candidate and national executives.
However, the current electoral college still does not satisfy many party faithful. According to Nana Akomea, a member of the NPP’s National Communications Team, portions of the Professor Mike Oquaye report revealed that a significant number of party members want the college expanded even further—a proposal the party is seriously considering. He made these comments on A1 Radio’s Day Break Upper East show.
“The people say they want expansion. They complain that only about 300 people vote, and you see them being offered fridges. You live in a compound, and one of your neighbours is a delegate, and he comes home with a nice mattress, TV or fridge. Meanwhile, you’re an NPP member too. Naturally, you would also want to be included. So we thought that expanding the college would reduce the monetisation of the election. That is the thinking—it is still debatable,” he explained.
Mr. Akomea further argued that increasing the number of voters would dilute the impact of money in internal elections. “For example, if instead of 800 people voting in Bolga, you had 5,000, it would reduce the impact of money,” he said.
While the need for expansion may be widely accepted, Mr. Akomea stressed the importance of determining the appropriate scope. “Do you expand it to include every member? Or do you still restrict the expansion? One school of thought is to do it for every card-bearing member. But the other argument is that this could lead to infiltration,” he said, referencing a similar attempt by the NDC to open up its electoral college to all card-bearing members—an experiment he said brought more challenges than solutions.
Some party faithful suggest the inclusion of professional group representatives and former appointees, such as Municipal and District Chief Executives (MMDCEs), may reflects the NPP’s commitment to a more inclusive and representative internal democratic process.
Source: A1Radioonline.com|101.1 MHz|Mark Kwasi Ahumah Smith|Bolgatanga
