The steering committee and other decision-making bodies of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) were unable to agree on dates for their presidential and parliamentary primaries during a meeting Thursday night.

The National Executive Committee (NEC) wants further interactions in terms of wider consultations before a date is set for primaries, hence the meeting did not accomplish its goal.

The meeting, which included party hierarchy’s top officials such as President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia, the Chief of Staff, some Members of Parliament, and some potential presidential candidates, was supposed to set the dates for the parliamentary and presidential primaries but came to no conclusion.

This is so because, while certain factions within the party are pressing for an early congress, others want the party to uphold its rule that a flagbearer must be chosen within a year.

After some hours of deliberations, the meeting ended inconclusively.

Confirming the decision of the Steering Committee, the General Secretary of the party, Justin Frimpong Koduah told the media after a closed-door meeting that there was no challenge regarding fixing the dates for the elections.

According to him, “I am sorry to disappoint you that from Steering Committee through to NEC and National Council (NC) it has been resolved that as a party, we need to do further consultation on the timelines for the presidential and parliamentary elections and within the shortest time possible, we will come out with the timelines for our presidential and parliamentary elections.”

The chief scribe stressed “As a party, we believe in consensus building and we recognise the views of each stakeholder in our deliberations so we want to come out with a date that is built on consensus and once that is done, we will tell you when the timelines will come.”

Source: Richard Obeng Bediako ll Metrotvonline.com ll Ghana