NPP's mode of electing national executives is flawed - Dr. Amoako Baah

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Category: Politics

Created on Monday, 14 April 2014 00:00

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NPP's mode of electing national executives is flawed - Dr. Amoako Baah

The Head of Political Science Department of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology has charged the newly elected national chairman of the NPP to change the current mode of electing the party's executives, especially the chairman.

The NPP currently elects its national executives through a simple majority system, but Dr. Amoako Baah told host of Joy FM’s Super Morning Show, Kojo Yankson, that the approach is flawed because it leads to the absurd situation where a winner of a position may actually not have received the majority of votes cast at an election.

For instance, Paul Afoko polled 2,032 votes out of a total of 4,733 to beat three others to the chairmanship position. His closest challenger Stephen Ntim had 1,500 votes. Fred Oware followed with 1,135 votes. Jake Obetsebi-Lamptey who was the incumbent could only manage 66 votes.

Dr. Baah says it is a difficult task for a winner who obtained less than 50% of valid votes cast to rally the rest of the team for a cause even though he was certain Mr. Afoko would reach out to the vanquished.

He also cited the women's organizer position which was fiercely contested between Otiko Djaba and Tina Mensah. Otiko won by a slim majority, she polled 276 votes whilst Tina Mensah polled 250. Mawusi Awity came third with 113 votes.

Not getting 50 percent plus one indicates that more than half of the delegates at the conference are not in support of Mr Afoko's chairmanship, the political science lecturer explained.

“The problem is this, those who did not vote for him are more than those who voted for him, which means, in effect, he does not enjoy the majority support of the members of the delegates who went there to vote; it is not a good thing,” he observed.

The two candidates with the highest votes should have been made to go for runoff if they want the winner to enjoy the support of the majority, he recommended.

He said, “It is better for the election mechanism to give you the support you need, than for you to go and ask for it, that is the difference.”

Dr. Amoako Baah has therefore advised the NPP to adopt a different approach in electing its executive.

“Now as chairman, it means it is part of his responsibility to see to it that, that part of the rules are changed, so that next time around it is not just the person who got the most votes but the person who got the majority of the votes, which is 50% plus,” he said.

In his view, the NPP went into the 2012 election with a divided front. One person does not win an election, he said, adding that the party must unite if it wants to win power.

Dr. Amoako Baah also said the election of Paul Afoko would go a long way to neutralise the propaganda that the NPP is an Akan party.

The Electoral Commission is yet to declare the results of the NPP election; however, provisional figures indicates that the New Executives of the NPP are as follows:

Source: Myjoyonline.com | Isaac Essel | This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.