Electing Top Party Leaders Must Be Decided On 50+1 System

A Political Science Lecturer and Head of the Political Science Department at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, (KNUST), Dr. Richard Amoako Baah, has lauded the decision of delegates at the just ended national delegates� conference of the New Patriotic Party to elect entirely new crop of leaders. The keen contest for the national executive positions ended Sunday dawn with only the party�s women�s organizer retaining her position. According to Dr. Amoako Baah, the new executives add some stride to the party�s fortunes at winning the 2016 elections. He says arguments suggesting the new leadership may not be experienced enough to make an impact are inaccurate. �Sometimes experience alone is not enough. You need new ideas, you need energetic people and sometimes that�s what you need, but the older guys, well they can advice, but it is a lot effective when you have the younger ones who are willing to go the extra mile, they have they energy and they can fight. So in this case, considering they have lost two elections, I think they are on the right side�. The Political Science Lecturer also dismissed suggestions that the election of the new executives� majority of who are perceived to be supporters of Alan Kyeremanteng could stifle the chances of the party�s two-time Flagbearer, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo in his bid to make a third attempt at the presidency. �Whoever becomes the flagbearer; you need the people in place who can make you win, not the one who is your friend. Yes, there would be some factionalism when the national flagbearers are competing against each other, but as soon as one is elected, that is the end of it� he noted. The Political Analyst also recommends that going forward; the political parties should consider adopting the fifty percent plus one majority vote system for internal elections, instead of the simple majority system. He believes people winning key positions without majority support, is unhealthy because it may not be truly representative of the majority view. �Looking at the results, for example the national chairman results, I have a problem with it, because I mean Paul Afoko got 2,034, Jake-66, Stephen Ntim got 1,503 and Fred Oware got 1,135. Now if you look at that, if you put those two together, the votes are more than the one who won, and that is a problem. They should have had a run-off between Stephen Ntim and Paul Afoko and in that way, the one who wins has a majority support from the party delegates behind it�. �The way they have done it, more people did not vote for Paul Afoko, and that is not good at all for a National Chairman. It is not good at all. I can say the same for the women�s organizer. I suppose these are some of the issues they can look at in strengthen their constitution. It should be changed; it should be that, whoever wins should have the majority of the votes, it should be 50+1�he suggested.