A political scientist, Professor Ransford Gyampo has stated that the current agitations on the labour front may intensify if the contestants display cash at the NPP’s upcoming National Delegates Conference.
The ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) is set to organise its National Delegates Conference this weekend, to elect new national executives for the party.
Over the years, such conferences by political parties in Ghana have been characterised by vote-buying; with aspirants splashing monies to win the sympathy of delegates.
According to Professor Gyampo, if this happens at the NPP’s national executive elections on Saturday, it will cause stakeholders on the labour front to press home their demands.
“Part of what would moderate or fuel the stance of all demanding COLA and better salaries in this period of hardship, would be the monies that would be changing hands from now up to the end of Saturday, in the ruling party’s national leadership election”, he wrote in a Facebook post on Tuesday.
Currently, some labour labour unions are demanding better conditions of service, given the hardship in the country.
Unions like the Teachers and Educational Workers Union (TEWU), the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT), the National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT) and the Coalition of Concerned Teachers (CCT) have all laid down their tools, due to the failure of government to pay 20% of the basic salaries as Cost of Living Allowance (COLA).
A meeting between the agitated workers and government to resolve the impasse ended in a stalemate on Tuesday, after the the representatives of the unions walked out of the discussions.
Meanwhile, the Chairman of the National Election Committee of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP), Peter Mac Manu has warned that the party will not countenance any acts of bribery and vote-buying in its upcoming national executive election.
According to him, such acts undermine the country’s constitutional democracy and therefore, his outfit will take steps to prevent its occurrence.