The National Organizer of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Mr. Lord Commey, broke the hearts of many parliamentary aspirants of the party in the Upper East Region, on Wednesday when he disclosed that though one could be a qualified person, the party could, for strategic reasons tell an aspirant not to contest.

This exposition of the NPP organizer which has the potential of opening the party to legal suits by aggrieved candidates who would be disqualified, was made after he had explicitly spelt out the amended rules and regulations governing the selection of the parliamentary candidates of the party.

Fear gripped the parliamentary applicants who witnessed the opening ceremony of the vetting exercise, which was purposely meant to give the media an insight into the procedures and what the whole exercise entailed, because the media was not going to be allowed to stay in during the vetting process.

The last straw that broke the back of the camel was when the straightforward chief mobiliser of the party indicated that, with the amendments of some clauses of Article 11 of the party's supreme law, the party reserved the right to tell an applicant in the face that, “Sir or Madam, you qualify to contest the primaries but for some strategic reasons you can't contest for now.”

Mr. Commey told the applicants that unlike to what the 1992 Constitution of Ghana says, contesting on the NPP's ticket was not a right but an application for a job in the party, therefore the employers (the Party) had to subject the applicants to their rules and regulations and operational strategies.

The national organizer noted that though the NPP conducts the selection of its parliamentary candidates in line with the national constitution, which allows anybody who qualifies under Chapter Ten to contest as a candidate for an election and be elected same as Member of Parliament, the party had an in-house policy that ensures that its interests are always protected and promoted.

He therefore cautioned all the applicants to desist from forming camps at this stage because they were just applicants and not aspirants yet. "You have applied for a job and employers could decide to accept or reject you, so you don't go ahead to form camps as if you are an aspirant already", he warned.

He stated that the party would, this time around, endeavour to field strategically-placed and winnable candidates who would improve upon the party's profile and performance in the various constituencies in the regions.

Mr. Commey, however, assured the applicants that they would all be treated fairly but the party could not afford to renege on its resolve to go strategic in its quest to consolidate power and increase its seats in parliament.

After Mr. Commey's pep talk, most of the aspirants were visibly downhearted. Even the most outspoken ones avoided media interviews.

Some of them pleaded with the journalists to suspend interviews until the vetting results had been released since they did not know their fate yet.

The Chronicle said it gathered that almost all the parliamentary applicants in the nine-orphaned constituencies vetted were present except that of Pusiga and Nabdam Constituencies.

Source: The Chronicle