Ghana’s ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) is voting on Saturday in 100 orphan constituencies in parliamentary primaries to elect parliamentary candidates for the 2020 general election.
The orphan constituencies are those constituencies in which the ruling NPP has no sitting Member of Parliament (MP) or is occupied by the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC).
Initially, voting was to be held in 106 constituencies but due to court injunction placed on six of them including hotspot, Asawase Constituency in the Ashanti Region, voting was suspended, according to Mr. Evans Anso, Electoral Director of the NPP.
Voting however started at 9.00 am local time and is expected to end at 3pm local time so that counting could be done on time to prevent late counting of ballot which often characterized such voting in Ghana.
In all 283 aspirants are vying for the 100 orphan constituencies with Chief Executives of the Metropolitan, Municipal and Districts Assemblies are contesting while Chief Executive Officers of state –owned enterprises are also battling for candidacy to represent their various constituencies in next years’ election.
Ghana as Unitary State has 275 Constituencies and four- year term subject to re-election for another four-year term and it is held together with the presidential election.
DAP/abj/APA