The Minority in Parliament says they accept the decision of the National Council of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) to defer the affirmative action directive because it’s in the larger interest of the party.
The Party deferred the controversial affirmative action policy which was going to guide it ahead of its Parliamentary primaries, after it had generated anger among some of the party members.
The policy sought to secure seats for female Members Parliament (MPs).
Speaking in an interview with Citi News the deputy minority leader Dominic Nitiwul however insisted the decision is not an indication the party has abandoned its affirmative action plans.
Nitiwul explained that the NPP dropped that particular affirmative policy because the “Minority is in sync with the party’s view that the timing of the affirmative action is not very good.”
He said the policy should therefore not be implemented in this “election cycle.”
He revealed that the “Minority and the MPs are all happy” with the new decision.
“We don’t want anything that could be used by anybody to stop the party from getting power in 2016 and so far as we are concerned we support the party’s view.”
NPP listens
Meanwhile the General Secretary of the party, Kwabena Agyepong has defended the party’s decision to drop its affirmative action plan saying the NPP is a listening party.
He said following the announcement of the affirmative policy they have received a number of petitions and complaints from party members with some supporting the policy and others against it.
Kwabena Agyepong however explained that withdrawing the policy was not a wrong thing to do saying as “political parties have the latitude to be able to use their structures to react or respond to the feelings of the masses of their people.”
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By: Marian Efe Ansah/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Follow @EfeAnsah