The New Patriotic Party’s presidential primary being held today will only produce an outright winner if one of the five contenders secures more than 50 per cent of the total valid votes cast. Should no candidate meet this requirement, a run-off election between the two leading candidates will be held within 14 days.
The Deputy Director of Research, Monitoring and Evaluation at the Electoral Commission (EC), Fred Tetteh, said the process is being conducted strictly in line with the party’s presidential primary rules. He explained that results will be officially declared at the NPP headquarters, stressing that a candidate must obtain more than half of the valid votes cast to win outright.
Five aspirants are seeking the endorsement of 211,849 party delegates. They include former Assin Central MP, Kennedy Ohene Agyapong; former Minister of Food and Agriculture and MP for Abetifi, Dr Bryan Acheampong; former Vice-President, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia; former Minister of Education and MP for Bosomtwi, Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum; and former former General Secretary of the party, Kwabena Agyei Agyepong.
The primary is being conducted without biometric verification devices. Instead, two voter registers have been provided to verify eligible delegates, and proxy voting will not be allowed.
Voting is taking place at 333 polling centres across 276 constituencies nationwide, including a centre at the party’s headquarters in Accra. Polls are scheduled to open at 7:00 a.m. and close at 2:00 p.m.
Mr Tetteh indicated that all election materials, including ballot papers, voter registers, ballot boxes, voting screens, indelible ink and other logistics, have been distributed to regional and district offices. He said district electoral officers, supported by assistant officers and secretaries, will supervise the polling centres, with each centre assigned a queue controller equipped with a voter album.
After the close of polls, ballots will be sorted and counted at the respective centres and results sheets completed, with copies issued to agents of each candidate. Results will then be transmitted electronically to the regional offices, followed by the submission of hard copies.
At the regional level, EC directors and their deputies, together with candidates’ agents, will collate the results before forwarding them electronically to the EC headquarters in Accra for national collation and final tallying.
Mr Tetteh assured the public that the EC is fully prepared to conduct a smooth, fair and transparent election. He urged all stakeholders, including security personnel, candidates’ agents and EC officials, to perform their duties professionally.
He also reminded delegates to comply strictly with the rules of the election, stressing that only individuals whose names appear in the official register will be allowed to vote. Any issues that cannot be resolved at the polling centres, he noted, should be referred to the party’s Elections Committee, adding that matters concerning delegate eligibility fall under the responsibility of the party’s presidential election committee, not the EC.