At its meeting on May 12, 2022, the National Council of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) approved the Rules and Regulations to guide the conduct of the party’s 2022 National Annual Delegates Conference to be held from July 15 to July 17, which shall, among other things, elect National Executive Officers of the party.
By God’s grace, tomorrow is July 15, which means the Delegates Conference which takes place at the Accra Sports Stadium begins tomorrow and ends on Sunday, all things being equal.
Over 40 candidates are contesting the positions of National Chairman, Vice-Chairpersons, General Secretary, National Treasurer, National Organiser, National Women Organiser, National Youth Organiser and National Nasara Coordinator.
The national officers of the NPP are going to be elected by over 6,700 delegates.
The Deputy General Secretary position is said to be non-elective as that officer is appointed.
In line with the Political Parties Law, 2000 (Act 574), the NPP National Elections shall be supervised by the country’s Electoral Commission (EC).
This means like any other political party elections at the constituency, regional and the national levels, the NPP national elections have incontestable legitimacy.
Hopefully, by Monday, July 18, 2022, the whole nation will have been informed about who the new national party officers are.
As it is well known, party officers manage their parties and they are responsible for handling the party’s relationship with the general public.
Besides, they lead the competition against political rivals, meaning they are the face of their party for which reason they will take leading roles in developing and communicating party information to the electorate.
That being so, the officers to be elected should be people who have qualities admired by society first before the party members.
Unfortunately, due to monetisation of political party elections in the country, both internally and nationally, it is difficult to emphasise character to dictate delegates’ choices.
It is now an open secret that such positions are often won by the highest bidders.
It is interesting to hear some of the candidates even encouraging the delegates to collect money and items from their opponents but vote rather for those making such calls.
Whatever the case may be, the Ghanaian Times expects the delegates to vote for leaders who have multiple skills and talents that would help them prove themselves effective in presenting the party to the country as one of choice, especially when the NPP is advocating the vision of “Breaking the 8”.
Even though different organisations need different types of leaders, it is not easy to pin-point particular characteristics that should separate political party leaders from other classes of leaders.
However, taking a cue from the American revolutionary Thomas Paine, the delegates should elect people who know “when to lead, when to follow, and when to get out of the way”, particularly because effective leaders do much more than give orders.
The Ghanaian Times is stressing the need to elect good people to lead the NPP because like the leaders of all political parties, whether in government or opposition, their ideas can shape certain policies that will eventually affect national peace, progress and development one way or another.
Hopefully, the conference would be peaceful and at the end of the day, there would be a great show of sportsmanship by those who would not have the best of luck.
It is not in doubt that the EC is always ready to execute its duties creditably but their success is mostly dependent on the good conduct of candidates and their supporters.
Therefore, this paper expects that all the stakeholders, including even representatives of other political parties invited to the conference, would give the necessary support to the EC to acquit itself as expected.
The Ghanaian Times wishes the NPP a peaceful and successful National Annual Delegates Conference as their success would enhance the country’s image politically in the comity of nations.
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