Director of legal affairs for the New Patriotic Party (NPP) Gary Nimako Marfo has assured members of the governing party that his directorate will work with all the other directorates in the party as well as all the constituency and regional chairmen to ensure that disputes emanating from internal elections are resolved in accordance with the constitution of the party and the rules and regulations governing the conduct of internal elections.
The private legal practitioner made the disclosure at a training workshop organized by Konrad Adenauer Stiftung in conjunction with the national party for the NPP’s Bono, Ahafo and Bono East members of Parliament and regional executives under the theme; “Developing Members of Parliament and Regional Executives for Effective Performance”.
The session was held from Friday 11 to Sunday 13 November 2022, at the Eusbett Hotel in Sunyani, Bono Region.
Challenging conduct
In his presentation to participants on the topic; “Pre and Post-Election Conflict Management”, Gary Nimako, noted that “Article 4 of the Party’s Constitution provides for ‘Disciplinary and Grievance Procedures’ set out the ground rules for management of intra-Party conflicts”.
“The provisions, he indicated “are extensive and provides the broad framework for the resolution of all types of conflicts that may arise in the day to day operations of the Party”.
According to him, “The conduct of Polling Station elections, electoral area, and constituency elections, must be done fairly in order to avoid unnecessary conflicts in the preparation of electoral albums in the party.
“The conduct of not selling nomination forms to potential aspirants; not accepting forms; not conducting any form of recognized elections; selecting the favorites of MPs and/or Constituency Executives to the detriment of others must be a thing of the past” Mr Marfo noted.
Gary Nimako Marfo admonished in his presentation that “this situation is further exacerbated when we flout and disregard the rules due to our parochial interests. Once party members feel aggrieved, disenfranchised and disillusioned, there is then a danger to party unity especially when there is an upcoming general elections”.
Dealing with conflicts
Turning his attention to examples of conflicts that be-devilled the party ahead of past elections, Mr Marfo said the Party has noted that an overwhelming majority of the petitions that came before the ad hoc committee for dispute resolution in the past were premised on factionalism within the party at the constituency level”.
“Although such divisions are inevitable, the Party must seriously address this worrying trend, and that is why henceforth, the rules will be applied to all without fear or favour.
“It has been recommended that the Party considers making the ADR Committee a standing Committee to help deal with foreseeable issues in the run up to the 2024 elections” the NPP’s director of legal affairs noted.
“With the establishment of the Legal Affairs Directorate, a new layer of accountability has been introduced that will help bring tensions down in the run up to the upcoming Presidential and Parliamentary Primaries.
“All of us must come on board and resolve to ensure that we do the right things in the interest of the Party, so as to avoid some of the unnecessary conflicts, whether pre or post elections” Gary Nimako told participants at the training programme.
