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The President of IMANI Ghana, Franklin Cudjoe believes the affirmative action policy of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) is a means through which the party is seeking to gain the approval of the Ghanaian electorate.

“This is becoming a bit more sectarian and a bit more playing to the gallery,” he said, and further alleged that it is not just the NPP which is using affirmative action as an electoral tool but “the NDC I hear is planning to do something similar.”

Last week, the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the NPP adopted a proposal which will allow only females to contest incumbent female Members of Parliament (MPs).

The controversial decision was received with mixed reactions from party members and the general public.

Women groups have thrown their support behind the NPP’s affirmative action decision while some party members have registered their displeasure by demanding a review of the policy.

The party’s National Women’s Organizer, Otiko Afisa Djaba apologized to aggrieved NPP members over the matter but defended the decision, insisting that it is a policy that must be adopted nationally to help drive the economy of the country.

On Citi FM’s news analysis programme, The Big Issue on Saturday, Franklin Cudjoe argued that although it is a good policy, “we shouldn’t reduce this whole fight for the economic well-being of a country to necessarily to a gender one because the evils that we are afflicted with are gender neutral.”

He indicated that at least, in Ghana, “we’ve come that far” in ensuring gender equality.

Cudjoe added that getting more women into Parliament on the ticket of the NPP is an “internal problem that they [NPP] want to cure and it’s probably strategic because they probably are aware that the NDC, the CPP, the PPP and everybody else wants to do this stuff.”

Financial Analyst, Sydney Casely-Hayford on his part said: “If the NPP wants to put in a policy to positively affirm women’s rights to be able to become Parliamentarians or Ministers, it is only the NPP’s problem. It is not our problem because they are a political party and a group of members following an agenda.”