NPP forbids unsuccessful presidential and parliamentary candidates from running as independents after primaries

NPP forbids unsuccessful presidential and parliamentary candidates from running as independents after primaries

The ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) has threatened to penalise any unsuccessful presidential and parliamentary candidate who seeks to run independently following the party’s primaries.

According to the party, all of the candidates have signed a pledge to support the eventual victor in both the presidential and parliamentary primaries.

As a result, Haruna Mohammed, Deputy General Secretary of the NPP, stated that the party maintains the right to constrain any aspirant who decides otherwise and impose the relevant punishments.

“These rules are designed before we open nominations so at the time of designing these rules, there was no aspirant and there was no way we could consult a non-existing aspirant.

“This is a rule that the party has set, and if you know that when you lose you’ll contest as independent then you don’t pick the form or you don’t return the form, you wait until it’s time for independents to contest.

“The sanctions are inside the rules, if you go against it, we will take you on because this is an agreement you have signed and the party will take the best decision,” he said.

The party has opened nominations for parliamentary primaries in orphan seats across the country, and it has handed a golden handshake to the Second Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Andrew Asiamah Amoako, for leaving Fomena off the list of orphan constituencies available for battle.

According to the NPP’s Deputy General Secretary, the Fomena MP, despite being an independent legislator, does business with the party in parliament.

As a result, the Fomena seat has been categorised as one with serving Members of Parliament, and it will be opened once the party decides to hold primaries in such constituencies.

“Everybody knows that Fomena is doing business with us so it has a different way of being treated just like the sitting Members of Parliament.

“Though the Fomena MP is an independent one, he’s still doing business with us, he votes with us, he takes decisions with us.

“The point is, we’re doing for orphans and Fomena is doing business with us in parliament so the same way we don’t open for our sitting Members of Parliament, we would wait till we get there, but Fomena is doing business with us in parliament,” he explained.