About 36 delegates are expected to vote in the governing New Patriotic Party’s Special Delegates Conference in the Upper East Region scheduled to come off on Saturday, August 26, 2023.
The number includes the party’s only sitting Member of Parliament, constituency executives, regional executives, Council of Elders, founding members among others.
The Special Delegates Conference, which is meant to trim down the number of presidential candidate aspirants to 5, will be held across the country in the various regional capitals.
Nine out of the ten aspirants had kicked against decentralising the election and petitioned the party for a centralised venue.
They had argued that decentralising the exercise was not cost effective and could fuel manipulation of the election.
But the National Council of the party dismissed their petition as it contended that a precedent set in 2014 should hold.
Speaking on preparations ahead of the conference on News Digest, Upper East Regional Communication Director of the party, Peter Ayinbisa disclosed that the exercise in the region will take place at the Bolgatanga Technical University.
Mr. Ayinbisa revealed that the party had intended to hold the conference at selected hotels in the various regions but some of the aspirants opposed the move.
“Initially, we wanted to do the elections in some hotels. Across the regions, some hotels were selected to be the venues for the elections but some of the aspirants said no, it’s not good to have elections in a hotel because they think that maybe some people can hide around and try to intimidate or manipulate the elections”.
He indicated that the party has announced fresh guidelines for the conference and will strictly enforce them.
“There very strict regulations. If you are not a delegate, you have no space to occupy at that venue. If you’re a minister and you’re coming, you let your bodyguard stay somewhere. We don’t want the presence of police,” he told host of the show, Nicolas Azebire.
