The screening of New Patriotic Party (NPP) parliamentary aspirants has started in earnest throughout the country.
The four-day exercise, which began on Monday and expected to come to an end tomorrow, will be fireworks as the primaries nationwide have attracted nearly thousand aspirants.
The party has put in place a constituency vetting committee made up of the constituency chairman of council of elders, electoral and research officer in the constituency, an elderly woman in the constituency and a representative each from the regional and national offices of the party.
An aspirant would be deemed eligible for vetting if he or she has completed filling the nominations forms and submitted them to the constituency office for the necessary remarks to be made and forwarded to the regional and ultimately the national offices.
The aspirants are expected to be paid-up members of the party, knowledgeable about party matters and have made personal contribution towards the party’s progress.
According to the Greater Accra Regional Chairman of the NPP, Mr Ishmael Ashitey, all was set for the exercise which yesterday commenced at two locations - the regional headquarters and Tema..
He disclosed that 93 aspirants successfully filed their nominations to contest in 33 out of 34 constituencies. He further said Krowor constituency was not taking part in the exercise for now whilst Ningo-Prampram was given a special dispensation for a delayed filing of nomination forms.
From the Western Region,46 parliamentary aspirants were vetted from Monday.
The Regional Chairman of the party, Mr Kofi Atta Dickson Nketsia, popularly known as Kendicks, said the process would be in three phases starting from the Sekondi/Takoradi Metropolis, followed by Tarkwa Nsuaem Municipality and ending with Sefwi Wiawso District.
He urged aspirants and their supporters to respect the rules of engagement to ensure that there would be no acrimony before, during and after the vetting.
“The vetting is a home affair,” he stated, and gave an assurance that the vetting committee would be fair to all aspirants.”
“It will be wrong for any aspirant, sympathiser and anybody who is an NPP member to go on radio before, during and after the process to bring the name of the party into disrepute because you don’t like candidate A or B,” he said.
The Western Region has 26 parliamentary seats of which the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) has 18 and the NPP eight.
<<Print>>