New Patriotic Party (NPP) Member of Parliament for Subin Constituency, Eugene Boakye Antwi has warned his party against any decision to hold late presidential and parliamentary primaries.

According to him, any attempt to delay the elections will force the date of the elections to be pushed into the year for the general elections, 2024.

“They want us to vote in December but let me tell you something, from November until parliament rises, we will be engaged in budget meetings; the finance minister will come and read the budget after which we will retire into estimates and then we will do appropriation. Kwame, what time will then be available for us to vote? At a time when all the presidential candidates are canvassing for votes across the country, how do you hold elections?” he told Kwame Nkrumah Tikese of Okay FM during an interview.

The Subin MP noted that a decision to conduct the party’s parliamentary elections in 2024 will be in breach of the party’s constitution.

“Secondly, you can’t fix NPP’s parliamentary elections for next year. That will be in breach of the party’s constitution because nothing warrants it. 2020 was force majeure so it was understandable to move the elections, but nothing has happened this year so how do you move it to 2024?

“Again, if we are not careful we will be playing into the hands of the opposition because we will be distracted by this many elections. About four elections. Nobody will be available [in parliament]. Everyone will leave. If we are not careful people will not come to the chamber from August,” he added.

The NPP has yet to fix a date for its parliamentary and presidential primaries ahead of the 2024 general elections.

Multiple reports indicate that whereas sitting MPs and members of the party want the primaries to be held early, President Akufo-Addo and some government officials want the primaries to be pushed to next year.



GA/SARA