The New Patriotic Party (NPP) has deferred the controversial affirmative action policy which was going to guide the party ahead of its Parliamentary primaries.
The decision was taken on Wednesday when the National Council of the party met to deliberate on the matter which has generated anger among some of the party members.
[contextly_sidebar id=”efQFbDfJ6bVU20QUEgU62l4iRriMKK7m”]The policy sought to secure seats for female Members Parliament (MPs) and indigenous Gas but many of the party members did not agree.
Citi News’ Franklin Badu Jnr reported that “The affirmative action policy though was commended by the National Council was deferred for thorough work to be done by congress in November.”
According to him, as it stands all aspiring MPs can contest now.
Meanwhile the date for the NPP primaries has been rescheduled from May 24 to 13th June, 2015.
Vetting of aspirants has been slated for 4th to 8th May, 2015 and results will be published on 11th May.
Filing fees
“Now on the fees, all aspirants will pay filling fees of GHc10,000 in all constituencies. However those aspirants who are youth and females will pay half of this amount. Again all those contesting in constituencies where we have sitting MPs will pay development fees of GH c20,000 in addition to the filing fees. It was also agreed that aspirants in orphan constituencies will pay half of the filling fees but will not pay the development fees.”
The NPP’s NEC had earlier directed that only females must be allowed to contest sitting female Members of Parliament (MPs) and only indigenous Gas could contest in Ga traditional areas.
The decision was met with mixed reactions from members of the party with some calling on the policy to be scrapped.
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By: Godwin Allotey Akweiteh/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Follow @AlloteyGodwin