A Political Science Lecturer at the University of Ghana has advised the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) to learn some lessons from the 2020 election amidst the internal wrangling of the party’s polling station executive elections.
According to Dr Alidu Seidu, “It started with the protection of some few MPs and we saw the reaction of the voters in the election.”
Conflicts have rocked some electoral areas as the governing NPP begins reorganising processes ahead of the 2024 general elections.
Although the election of polling station executives comes off soon, some party members have accused their executives of hoarding the forms.
Aggrieved supporters of these affected constituencies have accused their Members of Parliament and their various chairpersons.
Speaking on JoyNews’ Newsfile, the Political Analyst admonished that should this persist, the governing party will pay the price in the 2024 election.
“Now if you begin to do this at the polling station level, which is the foundational level, then the same thing will translate into the constituency, regional and national levels. All the processes will be tainted in a way.
“So it means that people who believe their grievances were not addressed by the party will have other ways of protesting. And it will not always be about going to court but they will sit at home when you are contesting with the other political party,” he told Samson Lardy Ayenini on Saturday.
While admitting that individuals have different interests in a political party, Dr Seidu said it is critical for the political institution to aggregate the political interests within its membership into a party interest guided by the party’s constitution.
He, therefore, cautioned that there will be chaos should the mother party fail to unite its members garner their support in the direction of
“This has a lot of implications. If the interest of the individuals is able to supersede the party’s constitution and other institutions that are supposed to guide the deepening of internal democracy, then we are in trouble.
“Because institutions are supposed to provide that lead way and the guide to aggregate its interest of the individual.”
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