A number of New Patriotic Party (NPP) executives at the constituency and polling station levels, who are currently out of the country temporarily, have petitioned the National Executive Committee of the party to reject the suspension of proxy voting for the party’s presidential primaries in January.
The suspension of proxy voting, announced by the Chairman of the party’s Elections Committee for the primaries, will effectively disenfranchise the party’s external branch executives who will be unable to travel to Ghana, as well as officials who are temporarily out of the country.
The suspension has already come under heavy criticism from some external branch executives of the party, and the latest to join is a group of constituency and polling station executives who are currently out of the country studying abroad.
In their petition to the national Chairman through the General Secretary, the executives, who jointly signed the petition said allowing the decision of the Elections Committee to stand would be unconstitutional and would unduly disenfranchise them since the party’s constitution clearly spells out conditions for proxy voting, which cannot be taken away, once those conditions are met.
Apart from basing its petition on constitutional provisions of the party, the group also cited democratic principles, financial prudence, and strategic reasoning for a party in opposition, to make their point.
Below is the full petition submitted by the group: