Anyone found publicly displaying his cast ballot, capturing images of same and making gestures to show the person voted for in the December 2 parliamentary primaries shall be declared a spoilt or rejected ballot, the New Patriotic Party (NPP) has said. 

The elections are to elect Parliamentary Candidates (PCs) in constituencies where the party has no sitting Members of Parliament (MPs), often referred to as orphan constituencies for the 2024 general election.

Consequently, the party has directed the Police to arrest persons who indulge in such acts on election day.

Guidelines

The party said there would be no proxy voting while no individual shall have the right to either remove names or insert names to replace deceased persons.

These were contained in the operational guidelines released by the party for the conduct of the December 2 parliamentary primaries in the orphan constituencies.

The guidelines for the conduct of the elections was released together with a statement issued and signed by the General Secretary of the NPP, Justin Frimpong Kodua, last Friday.

The statement said additional protocols governing the conduct of the polls in the orphan constituencies had been formulated to ensure the integrity and fairness of the electoral process.

“We trust that these protocols will contribute to a transparent, free and fair electoral process.”

“We acknowledge with sincere gratitude the unwavering cooperation from all stakeholders as we pursue an equitable,impartial and transparent process to elect our parliamentary candidates for the 2024 general election,” it said.

Key rules

Meanwhile, to ensure a smooth process the party has set up Constituency Parliamentary Election Committees (CPECs) with the mandate to oversee the organisation and conduct of the elections and all issues concerning the conduct of the primaries must be referred to them.

The committee is chaired by the Chairperson of the Constituency Council of Elders, with members as the Constituency Chairperson, Secretary and an elderly woman to be appointed by the Constituency Executive Committee.

It said to maintain uniformity and consistency, the party recommended that the CPECs use the same venues that were used for the recently ended presidential primary.

It said in case there was a change in the venue for the election, the Constituency Executive Committee members were to discuss it with their respective Regional Executive Committees.

Some of the key rules in the guidelines are the ban on camping of delegates on the day of voting, campaigning, canvassing for votes or gathering of party people for any purpose whatsoever a day before voting.

It said the Electoral Commission (EC) would supervise the conduct of the election to ensure a transparent, free and fair election.

Security activities, it said, rested exclusively with the police.

Source: GraphicOnline