Robert Osei Asibey – Ex-NPP Executive
A former founding member and Secretary of the Italian Diaspora NPP, Mr. Robert Osei Asibey has advocated an Extraordinary National delegates Congress of the New Patriotic Congress (NPP) to consider an amendment of the party’s constitution and allow for an expanded Electoral College.
The proposed amendment is expected to contribute to the restructuring of the party and ensure a solid membership drive and support base. It will also save the party from further electoral losses in future polls.
He recommended that Articles 11 and 18 on the selection of Parliamentary candidates and Amendments to the Constitution respectively must be appropriately reviewed to this effect.
Mr. Osei Asibey, who is also a former polling station chairman says the reforms are necessary to ensure that the NPP consolidates on the gains while in government since 2017 and ready itself to contest the 2024 elections as a strong and formidable party against the NDC which is all out to win power.
He said the intended Extraordinary Congress would be more appropriate before the impending polling station elections of the party.
He said the current smaller Electoral College has affected the party at the primaries and subsequently at the just ended presidential and parliamentary polls which situation must be corrected and avoid further electoral embarrassments at all cost.
According to Osei Asibey, the huge difference in the votes of the presidential candidate and that of the parliamentarians in the presidential and parliamentary elections was as a result of apathy following the manner in which primaries were conducted by the MPs in connivance with constituency chairman and some selected party executives in some constituencies across the country.
The former polling station chairman of the Baamu Dominase electoral area in the Subin constituency in Kumasi said the expanded Electoral College will allow for the registration of all card bearing members which exercise will by itself help raise revenue for the party.
The NPP enacted its Constitution and registered it with the Electoral Commission on June 24, 1992, which has suffered four amendments on August 29, 1998, 2003 and August 22, 2009 and further amended in December 2017.
Osei Asibey has also suggested that the proposed Extraordinary Congress must ensure that MPs do not manipulate party structures or interfere with activities of the constituency executives and that MPs must be seen as ex-officio members in the constituencies and function as such adding that the constituency chairman should be recognized as the leader of the party at that level.
He said once the reforms have been sanctioned by the proposed Congress, every card bearing member of good standing would qualify to vote in the polling, electoral area, constituency and regional level elections.
Mr. Osei Asibey believes that with an expanded Electoral College the situation where a smaller number of delegates are influenced in the choice of parliamentary candidates at the expense of the larger membership would be avoided and thus help eliminate moneycracy from the system.
He said his call for constitutional reforms is the best antidote to make the party attractive and attract members whose apathy affected the fortunes of the party in the 2020 Elections and thus help to ensure that elected MPs remain loyal to the ideals of the party in all situations.
