A LEADING member of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Mr Eugene Antwi, has called on the party hierarchy to bring disciplinary action to bear on the Ashanti Regional Chairman of the party, Mr Robert Yaw Amankwa, for publicly calling on the party members to reject the proposed constitutional reforms.
He said as the regional chairman, he is also a member of the National Executive Committee (NEC) and the National Council which sat on April 28 and 30, 2009 to agree on the proposals received from the regions, branches and individuals of the party on the amendment.
Mr Antwi, who is the immediate past Secretary of the United Kingdom and Ireland branch of the NPP, was reacting to a story in the Monday, August 17, 2009 issue of the Daily Graphic titled “Reject proposed amendments”, which was attributed to the Ashanti Regional Chairman.
Mr Antwi said it was regrettable that Mr Amankwa being a member of the two most powerful bodies of the party that took the decision on the proposed amendments, turned around and described the amendment as favouring a particular interest of the party”.
In the story, Mr Amankwa alleged that “from all indications, the proposed revisions were meant to favour a particular interest of the party and if we allow this (amendment) to happen, the party should forget about winning the 2012 elections”.
Mr Antwi, who contested the Subin NPP primary, said Mr Amankwa’s call for rejection was an affront to Article 3 Section (d) of the NPP’s constitution which states that “a member must be loyal and truthful to the party, abide by and publicly uphold the decisions of the party”.
He again quoted in part, Article 4 Section 7 of the NPP constitution in support of disciplinary action against Mr Amankwa’s call for rejection, which states that a member should not do anything in public to bring the name of the party into disrepute.
Mr Antwi challenged Mr Amankwa to refrain from being evasive and state specifically and categorically which particular interest the proposed amendment was seeking to favour.
He reminded Mr Amankwa that the proposed amendment was sought for in accordance with the party’s constitution after the 2008 Election Campaign Review Committee had undertaken a nation-wide review of activities leading to the election and the loss of power to the National Democratic Congress (NDC).
Mr Antwi noted with concern that under the chairmanship of Mr Amankwa, the Ashanti Region had 17 independent candidates, two of whom won their seats, a situation which affected the fortunes of the NPP in the region.
He said unlike the existing arrangements where on the average about 100 delegates selected a parliamentary candidate, the new proposal would ensure that at least 500 delegates got the opportunity to select a candidate.
That, he said, would prevent manipulation by “money bag holders” and also produce genuinely popular candidates.
Mr Antwi said the amendment coming from party members who had worked with the system for the past five elections, was also meant to expand the frontiers of majority participation in decision making process in the party which was the hallmark of the United Party (UP) tradition.
Mr Antwi again challenged Mr Amankwa to substantiate his claim that the NPP did not lose the 2008 general election because of its constitution and therefore did not need to amend it.
“Mr Amankwa should tell the party what was the real issues that made the party to lose the election so that the leadership would be able to address such issue“, he stressed.
Mr Antwi said it was also not true that there were allegations in certain quarters that former President Kufuor had bribed him and others to campaign against the proposed amendments.
He stated that nobody disputed former President Kufuor’s immense contribution to the success of the party and his position as the most successful UP leader of all times because apart from the being the role model for the youth in the party, including himself (Mr Antwi), he had also been able to lead the party to be in government in two successive terms.
Mr Antwi expressed worry at Mr Amankwa’s claim that he was not against the constitutional amendment but the timing was wrong.
He, therefore, asked the Ashanti Regional Chairman to come out with when it would be appropriate for the amendment to be undertaken.
According to Mr Antwi, such statements by Mr Amankwa were contradictory because in one breath, he said he was not for the amendment while in another instance, he said he was for it but against the timing.
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