The New Patriotic Party (NPP) in the Bawku Central constituency has opened nomination to invite qualified party members in the constituency to contest for the parliamentary candidature ahead of December 2012.

The nomination period started on August 15 and is expected to end on August 20, 2012.

Deputy Bawku Central Constituency Secretary, Ustarz Saeed Abass, who disclosed this to the DAILY GUIDE in an interview, after a marathon constituency executive meeting at Bawku, said if the picking of nomination forms went as the executives expected, the constituency would hold its primaries on August 25, 2012, to select the parliamentary candidate for the general elections in December 2012.

According to him, the process was aimed at selecting a candidate to stand in for the party, in case the court did not change its ruling on the state of the incumbent Member of Parliament for Bawku Central, Adamu Daramani.

He said the party executives tried to convince some persons expressing interest in the position to step down to pave way for the selection of one person, but almost all of them refused, hence, the opening of the nomination. Filing fee was still GH¢16,000, like other previous contestants in constituencies of the party across the country.

It was not clear whether the constituency executives would reduce the filing fee of GH¢16,000 by half for women who would express interest in contesting for the position.

Information reaching DAILY GUIDE was that about five party members including a strong woman, had expressed interest ahead of the nomination.

Deputy Constituency Secretary Ustarz Saeed Abass, told Daily Guide that the New Patriotic Party still had a brighter chance of winning the Bawku Central seat, considering the number of developmental projects Honourable Adamu Daramani Sakande attracted to the constituency.

“In fact the party has been well marketed and been accepted by majority of the voters in the constituency.

The Member of Parliament was down to earth and did not discriminate among the people, hence attracted people from areas that did not like the NPP.

Today, we can say the NPP has been accepted and is present in almost every sector of the Bawku Central constituency.

Even though constituency executives and members were seriously hurt by the two year prison sentence of Honourable Adamu, we are still working to brighten the chances of the party come December 2012,” he said.

According to Mr. Saeed Abass, members of the NPP and many residents in the constituency have been wishing the Member of Parliament well since he was sentenced and were praying that his appeal against the High Court’s judgment would succeed.

He noted that the opening of the nomination was not a sign of neglecting Honourable Adamu Daramani, but a measure to ensure that the NPP stood prepared no matter the outcome of the appeal.