NPP considering e-voting for parliamentary primaries in June

The New Patriotic Celebration (NPP) is considering electronic voting for its parliamentary primaries in the 168 constituencies where the party has sitting Members of Parliament (MPs).

Parliamentary primaries: Must the decision be backed by the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the party, there would be an online/offline ballot for all delegates

The Director of Research and Elections of the NPP, Evans Nimako, told the Daily Graphic that the party was thinking about various choices to ensure that the parliamentary primaries occurred without a hitch.

He explained that in view of the COVID-19 pandemic and the issue of physical and social distancing, the electronic ballot had actually come up highly.

He stated with e-voting, there would not be the requirement for delegates to converge on ballot centers as they could easily vote from their phones in the comfort of their homes or at the constituency secretariat.

He stated business organizations, schools and other groups were utilizing innovation to hold meetings, conferences and learn, thus the decision of the party to employ innovative services to make sure that the celebration performed an effective delegates’ conference.

Evans Nimako revealed the hope that all stakeholders would support the initiative needs to the NEC to choose the e-voting.

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He discussed that although the elections would be done at the constituency level, just the aspirants or their representatives would be recognized to be at the collation centers.

That way, he stated, the number of party members present would be restricted to make it easy for the celebration to implement all the security procedures.

When asked if unauthorized persons would not have the ability to vote, he said the IT directorate of the party had the database of all the delegates in each constituency.

Although the e-voting procedure would occur at the constituency level, he stated the IT Directorate and the national party officers would be handling the system to prevent any infiltration.

He stated there would not be any control because the voting and results would be appearing on screen per the arrangements being put in place.

SOURCE: Ghana Quest