A total of 872 persons picked nomination forms to contest in the parliamentary primaries of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) as of the close of the exercise in 249 constituencies out of the 276 across the country.
The aspiring parliamentary candidates picked their nomination forms via the NDC website at a cost of GH¢5,000 which they paid via mobile money.
The exercise began last Wednesday (February 22) and ended last Friday (February 24).
The acting NDC National Director of Elections, Daniel Amartey Mensah, who made this known to the Daily Graphic said, “What we have seen on our website is extremely encouraging.”
“They have even oversubscribed because the NDC is the most attractive brand in the politics of Ghana today,” he stated.
Breakdown
Giving a breakdown of the number of parliamentary aspirants who had picked the nominations forms region by region, Mr Amartey said 43 picked forms in the Western Region, 87,41,31,69,105 in the Eastern, Bono, Upper West, Central and Ashanti regions respectively with the highest number of 143 in the Greater Accra Region.
In the North East region, he said 22 picked forms, while 38, 21, 32, 53, 88,10, 71 and 18 picked the nomination forms in the Bono East, Western North, Oti, Upper East, Volta, Ahafo, Northern and Savannah regions.
Earlier last week, the Chairman of the Presidential and Parliamentary Election Committee, Kakra Essamuah, who announced the close of the nominations at a press conference in Accra last Friday, said four persons also picked up presidential nomination forms.
They were former President John Dramani Mahama; a businessman from the Gbawe-Weija Constituency of the party, Ernest Kwaku Kobeah, former Chief Executive of the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly (KMA), Kojo Bonsu and a former Minister of Finance and former Governor of Bank of Ghana, Dr Kwabena Duffuor.
Submission of forms
Per the timetable of the elections issued by the party last month, aspiring presidential and parliamentary candidates are to submit their completed nomination forms between March 20 to 22 before vetting would commence on March 27 to 29.
There would also be a window for appeals on the outcome of the vetting process between March 30 to April 6 before the election on May 13.
The two elections would be held on the same day on Saturday, May 13, 2023, in all the voting centres in all the 276 constituencies including Santrokofi-Apkafu-Lolobi and Likpe (SALL) in the Oti Region.
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The NDC headquarters would also constitute a voting centre.
Frozen constituencies
Earlier last week, the party, in a statement signed and issued by the General Secretary of the party, Fifi Fiavi Kwetey, said nominations in 27 constituencies with regard to the parliamentary primaries had been put on hold to allow for further engagements with key stakeholders to ensure that the primaries in those areas would lead to outcomes that would favour the party’s performance in those constituencies.