The Numbers In The NPP’s Delegates Conference

The New Patriotic Party will go to Congress on Saturday in what is dubbed Special Delegates Conference. The expectation at the conference is to choose the top five from the ten vying to contest election 2024 on the ticket of the ruling Party. The five who emerge as victors will then go head to head in another contest slated for November this year to choose a flagbearer.

Ahead of the Conference this weekend, Majority Radio newsroom brings you this teaser which looks at the numbers involved in the conference.

ONE(1)

There may be ten contenders but what this weekend’s conference aims to do is to bring the numbers down to five to go for the main contest in November. We may not be certain of who will make the top five but we are certain that the aim of Saturday’s polls and the one that will come in November is to elect just One Person to lead the party into election 2024.

TWO(2)

Two stands for the number of conferences to be held before Akufo-Addo’s successor is chosen. There’s the Special Delegates Conference and the main conference scheduled for later this year. It is the second time in history that the NPP will elect a flagbearer via two conferences. It is also the second time a serving Vice President is contesting the Party’s presidential primaries after late Alhaji Aliu Mahama, a deputy to President Kuffuor contested in 2007.

THREE(3)

Political watchers have predicted that the election is a three-horse race between Vice President, Dr. Mahamud Bawumia, Former Trade and Industry Minister, Alan John Kojo Kyerematen and business mogul and Assin Central MP, Kennedy Ohene Agyapong. The expectation is that these three candidates in both of the conferences will garner more votes than the other contenders.

FOUR(4)

Four represents the date of the main conferences which is November 4, 2023. Four is also for the fact that whoever eventually emerges as the Party’s flagbearer will become the the fourth person since 1992 to lead the NPP. Mr. Adu Boahene, John Agyekum Kuffuor and Nana Akuffo Addo have been the previous Presidential Candidates.

FIVE (5)

Five is the outcome of this weekend’s elections. With ten contenders, the main aim of this conference is to reduce the number with five candidates. This is more of a Political Reality Show with Saturday[August 26] being the eviction night where five contestants with the least votes will leave the show with progress to the next stage assured for the other five candidates.

SIX and SEVEN

We have had to combine these numbers because of their significant relationship. The Busia-Dombo-Danquah tradition has held six previous presidential primaries and the main polls in November 2023 will be the seventh congress. The previous times have been in the years 1992, 1996, 1998, 2007, 2012 and 2014. Interestingly, whoever becomes the winner will get to lead the Party into the seventh election this country has held since the return to multiparty democracy in 1992.

TEN

At the end of the closing of nomination, ten people including the Vice President, Dr. Mahamud Bawumia, picked nomination forms to contest the presidential primaries ahead of next year’s general elections.  It is these ten people who will lock horns on Saturday to see who among them will make the top five.

ELEVEN

Eleven is the month of November where the main conference will take place to decide who wins the flagbearership race.

SIXTEEN

The Special Delegates Conference is expected to take place across all 16 regions of the country with delegates from various constituencies expected to gather at designated venues in the regional capitals. The Party at the last minute decided against holding the primaries at one special venue with delegates attending from all over the country. In Northern, the conference will take place at the Tamale College of Education and you can trust Majority Radio to bring you all the updates from election grounds.

900

We have to jump all the way to the number 900 because of the fact that the rest of the numbers are what come together to give us the nine hundred. The number 900 represents the total number of delegates who will take part in the special electoral college. This includes all 275 constituency chairpersons, all 272 regional executives, all 137 Members of Parliament, all 60 regional representatives to the National Council and all 30 members of the Council of elders.

The rest are all 123 surviving Founding Members / Fathers, three representatives from the Women’s Wing, all three Rep from the Youth Wing, three representatives from the Nasara Wing and three representatives from each of the 25 international branches which comes up 75.

Others with voting rights include, All National Officers, All Former National Officers, the President and Former Presidents.