NPP SPECIAL ELECTORAL COLLEGE- MATTERS ARISING Seven persons have expressed their intentions to contest the NPP Flagbearership and have filed their nomination papers accordingly. The NPP Constitution in Article 12 (5) (B) provides that where there are more than five aspirants, the number shall be pruned down to five by a Special Electoral College. There is an on-going “debate” as to how many votes a delegate is entitled to cast. This debate should not have arisen at all because there are express constitutional provisions relating to the method of pruning down the presidential aspirants to five and subsequently to one candidate. The relevant provisions of the NPP Constitution are Article 12 (5) (B), Article 12 (6) and Article 12 (7) (B). Article 12 (5) (B) reads, “where there are more than five (5) contestants for nomination as the Party’s Presidential Candidates, a Special Electoral College shall cast their vote by secret ballot for the first five contestants to be shortlisted...................... Every delegate shall be entitled to one vote.” Article 12 (6) provides, “the Party’s Presidential Candidate shall be elected by the following delegates................................ Every delegate shall be entitled to one vote.” Article 12 (7) (B) reads, “where there is more than one (1) contestant, each delegate will cast his or her vote by secret ballot for one of the contestants.” The plain meaning and total effect of these Articles are as follows: a) Each delegate SHALL be entitled to one vote. Being entitled to one vote, each delegate can only vote once for one candidate but not for five candidates. b) Each delegate is required to choose one of the contestants as the person he or she prefers to be the Flagbearer. In the Special Electoral College, it is the total number of delegates who prefer a particular candidate that will determine who finally emerges on the list of five. There is an erroneous impression that in the election of the National Vice-Chairpersons votes are cast for three persons at the same time and this should apply to the Special Electoral College elections. I beg to differ because the two have totally different constitutional provisions. The words in choosing the Presidential Candidate are clear. They are different and separate from the provisions of choosing the Vice-Chairpersons. In the case of the Presidential Candidate the Articles stipulate that there shall be one vote for selecting one person. Where the words in any law, constitution, statute or other legislation are clear and express, you cannot import or borrow from another context in order to understand them. You apply each one within its own context and within its clear and express meaning. Regarding the election of the Flagbearer at the Special Electoral College, the NPP Constitution provides that each delegate shall be entitled to cast one vote. It means, any ballot paper which has preference for more than one contestant shall be null and void and shall count as a spoiled ballot paper. This is what happens all the time in our National Elections where a voter is required to choose one person whether presidential or parliamentary candidate. In this connection, any regulation which is contrary to these express provisions of the NPP Constitution will be null and void. Any regulation that will subsequently be made by any person or body in the Party which contravenes these express provisions of the NPP Constitution will be null and void. Every delegate is entitled to one vote in accordance with Article 12 (5) (B), and depending on the number of votes that each contestant receives, the first five contestants will be shortlisted accordingly. This means that they will be ranked according to the number of votes cast in favour of each contestant. This position is reinforced by Article 12 (6) in respect of the election of the Party’s presidential candidate. That provision also emphasises that each delegate shall be entitled to one vote with the ultimate aim of choosing one contestant as a Flagbearer from among a number of candidates. This position is further reinforced by Article 12 (7) (B). That provision insists that where there is more than one contestant in electing a presidential candidate, each delegate will cast his or her vote by secret ballot for one of the contestants appearing on the ballot paper. In all this, the Constitution envisages that you cast one vote to show a preference from among a number of contestants in finally choosing a presidential candidate. It is therefore clear that in the final analysis, whether you are choosing five persons (Special Electoral College) or one person (Presidential Primaries) essentially the process is the same. The choice of five or one depends on the number of votes cast in favour of a contestant. What is the ultimate aim of the entire exercise? The answer is, who do you think has the best chance of winning the ultimate presidential election for the NPP? The Special Electoral College exercise takes place because there are many candidates, and we want a first selection process to prune it down to the first five preferred candidates. It is an order of preference exercise. Voting for one candidate will also result in qualitative ranking. It will go with JH Mensah’s philosophy of “check yourself before you go to contest”. Something happened prior to the 2008 elections- too many candidates and the ill-effect on the Party. The present position is to sieve prospective candidates and to invoke a “check yourself” situation. We cannot hide this under any multiple voting process and encourage future influx of candidates. We made the present arrangement to correct a mischief in the past. We cannot allow the mischief to creep in through the backdoor. Let us stop the unnecessary speculation, dilly-dallying, bickering, rancour, and go straight to elect our Flagbearer in the first place and then go ahead to mount a spirited campaign in unison as victory beckons us in 2016. Some NPP people are talking too much and we all know that our NPP followers and Ghanaians generally are not happy with what is happening. There is an Akan proverb which literally translates thus, “when the anthill loosens itself every animal enters.” It is pertinent to recount that this “debate” commenced when Adakabre generated it on his radio programme. I daresay that we should be very careful in the NPP as to who sets an agenda for us. It cannot be gainsaid that it is time we stopped majoring in minors; it is time to end the radio and newspaper wars and concentrate on a simple, clean, non-vituperative contest to elect a Flagbearer. The people of Ghana are suffering and fainting under the sufferance of NDC malgovernance. They are crying for the NPP to put its act together and come to their rescue. Please let us not add insult to their injury by denting their hopes in any way whatsoever. I had the privilege to move the constitutional amendment which brought into being the constitutional provisions that some people seek to debate for whatever reason. All the delegates and the framers of those provisions knew what they were doing. We want a clean competition in which those who put themselves forward will know in clear terms what the delegates think of them. No one shall get any indirect votes to claim he also is wanted. All votes will be straight. The men will be separated from the boys. The JH Mensah principle will come to play. People will learn lessons. The performance and the preference will show a lesson. And in future, people will “check themselves” before they go to stand. All who wish to contest have done well by coming out boldly. Each one should stand or fall on his own merit only. It will be one vote for one person. The first five will go through. God bless our Nation. God bless NPP. BY PROFESSOR MIKE OQUAYE
Posted on: Tue, 15 Jul 2014 14:26:17 +0000
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