A Betrayal of the Grassroots
By: Kwaku Amoh-Darteh, Esq.
The recent attempt by certain elements within the National Executive Committee (NEC) to expand the party’s Electoral College, based on recommendations following the Quaye Committee Report, is not just misguided. It is a flagrant violation of the New Patriotic Party’s founding principles, and a direct assault on its long-cherished tradition of bottom-up democracy.
To deliberately marginalize polling station executives, the bedrock of our party’s structure is not only procedurally improper; it is constitutionally offensive. No one should dare claim that “there is no data.” The party has maintained comprehensive electoral records and polling station databases since 2012. To pretend otherwise is to insult our collective intelligence and institutional memory.
This calculated expansion, without broad-based consultation or the consent of the grassroots, amounts to a structural hijack, orchestrated to serve narrow personal and political interests. It bypasses the legitimate organs of the party and undermines the very people who toil daily to uphold the NPP’s fortunes at the base.
Let it also be stated without ambiguity: The utter disrespect being shown to President John Agyekum Kufuor, one of the party’s founding fathers and the living conscience of our democratic tradition, is not only shameful, it is immoral. To disregard his counsel and the voices of other revered statesmen within the party, simply to perpetuate a selfish agenda, is to spit on the legacy that brought the NPP into existence.
Let the world know: we will not sit idly by. We will not allow this blatant subterfuge to succeed. The truth will prevail. The grassroots will speak. And when they do, history will remember those who stood on the side of justice.
Why this indecent haste? Why the rush to disfigure our party’s democratic soul? Why are you dragging us into a manufactured crisis at the very moment when unity and credibility should be our top priorities?
The NPP was founded on Danquah-Busia-Dombo principles of inclusiveness, grassroots empowerment, and fidelity to democratic norms. This reckless path you have chosen is a betrayal of that sacred covenant. It disenfranchises the ordinary party foot soldier in favor of backroom manipulation and elite consolidation.
We, therefore, call on all polling station executives, the true custodians of our party’s democratic will, to resist this affront with dignity and courage. To permit such an act is to preside over the slow, painful death of the NPP’s internal democracy. Let history show that when democracy was endangered from within, the grassroots stood firm.
Anything less would be complicity in the erosion of our party’s moral authority and constitutional integrity.
Enock Akonnor is a seasoned Ghanaian journalist, serving as CEO and Managing Editor for www.leakyghana.com. His gravitas, which is mirrored by many years of proven and enviable experience in the field of journalism has positioned him among the most sort after media practitioners in Ghana.
Contact: +233 541921562
Email: enockakonnor2013@gmail.com
