The governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) has suspended its April 25, 2020 parliamentary primaries indefinitely in accordance with the President’s ban on public gatherings in the wake of the Coronavirus pandemic in Ghana.
The decision to suspend the primaries was decided at a National Steering Committee meeting held yesterday, Tuesday, April 14, 2020.
NPP was to use the primaries to elect parliamentary candidates in constituencies where it has sitting Members of Parliament, ahead of the 2020 general elections.
The party said in a statement stated that: “The National Steering Committee, by reason of Article 10(10)(1) of the party’s constitution, is the body responsible for overseeing the daily management of the party, and is thus mandated to ‘act on behalf of the party on urgent matters’ such as in the circumstances we find ourselves as a party and nation owing to the COVID-19 pandemic. It would, indeed, be recalled that the President of the Republic, on April 12, 2020, extended, pursuant to EI 64, the ban on social gatherings including religious and political activities by additional two weeks. i.e. from April 12 to April 26, 2020, as part of measures to stop the spread of the deadly Coronavirus in the country.”
Portions of the NPP’s statement concluded by saying: “In the light of this development, the party is unable to hold the primaries as planned, and has accordingly postponed same till further notice. The party regrets all inconveniences that this may occasion, and hopes to hold this crucial exercise, sooner than later.”
The NPP has 169 sitting Members of Parliament out of the total 275 seats in parliament.
The party has already held primaries for orphan constituencies; areas that did not have sitting Members of Parliament.
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