The New Statesman is reliably informed that as many as 6 persons have confirmed their intentions to become the next National Youth Organizer of the New Patriotic Party ahead of next year’s national delegates’ conference.

However, the list could be whittled down to four as the New Statesman is reliably informed that two of the contestants will exceed the constitutionally mandated age of 40 during their tenure as National Youth Organizer of the NPP, which will make them ineligible to contest in next year’s election.

Emmanuel Attafua Danso, the current National Youth Organizer of the NPP; Pius Enam Hadzide, the 2012 NPP candidate for Ketu North and one time NPP Youth Organizer aspirant; and David Asante, spokesperson for pressure group Let My Vote Count and former SRC President at KNUST have declared their intentions to run for the National Youth Organizer position of the party and are considered as the early frontrunners for the position.

Gideon Boako, the Ashanti Regional Youth Organizer of the NPP; Richard Nyamah, convener of the Young Patriots and Michael Ampong, the Greater Accra Regional Communications Director of the NPP, make up the remaining persons interested in becoming the next youth organizer of the NPP.

Many analysts have interpreted Article 14 (b) of the NPP’s constitution, which states that “‘Youth’ is a Member who has not attained the age of forty (40) years)”, to imply that a National Youth Organizer of the party during his or her four year tenure in office should not attain the age 40.

Thus, from this interpretation of the constitution, the New Statesman is informed that Michael Ampong and Richard Nyamah could potentially be ineligible to contest for the position as they will attain the age of 40 whilst being in office, should they win the contest.

It appears that delegates of the NPP, in their choice of who becomes the next General Secretary, will be taking a lot of factors into consideration, including the leadership credentials, strategic initiatives, team-playership, ability to unite, connect with and mobilise grassroots support, communication skills and total commitment to the 2016 project of working to wrestle power from the ruling National Democratic Congress, regardless of who becomes the NPP’s 2016 flagbearer.

As of now, Pius Enam Hadzide, David Asante and Emmanuel Attafua remain the men to beat.