A member of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Nana Ampem Antwi Bawua, has petitioned the Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, to use his good offices to restrain the Chief of Agric Nzema, Nana Nkansah Boadu Ayeboafo, from holding himself as a delegate to vote in the party’s Super Delegates elections scheduled for August 26, this year.
Nana Nkansah Boadu Ayeboafo is a member of the NPP and serves as the Ashanti Regional representative on the National Council for which he has been appointed as a delegate for the impending Super Delegates Congress.
But the petitioner says Nana Nkansah Boadu Ayeboafo, as a Chief, could not be part of the Electoral College for the Super Delegates elections.
Nana Antwi Bawua explained his position on the basis of the provisions of Article 276 of the 1992 Constitution and Section 26 of the Political Parties Act 574 of 2000.
According to Nana Antwi Bawua, Article 276 of the Constitution provides that “a chief shall not take part in active party politics,” while Section 26 of Act 574 prevents a chief from taking any form of leadership role in a political party.
Nana Antwi Bawua also referred to a recent Supreme Court declaration that a chief’s endorsement of a candidate for elective national or local political office to the exclusion of a rival candidate cuts to participating in “active party politics” as provided by Article 276 (1).
Against these backgrounds, Nana Ampem Antwi Bawua has emphasised that Nana Nkansah Boadu Ayeboafo’s planned participation in Saturday’s elections was a clear violation of the laws of the land.
The concerned petitioner said to vote in the elections as a delegate, to the extent of exercising a proxy vote in addition, was tantamount to violation of the 1992 Constitution.
He explained that, though internal, it was a public election being conducted and supervised by the Electoral Commission of Ghana, and, therefore, participation in active partisan politics by a chief of no mean a personality than the Agric Nzemahene was a contravention of the laws of the land and goes to undermine the sanctity of the chieftaincy institution.
It is in the light of these concerns raised that, Nana Ampem Antwi Bawua of Onwe near Ejisu, was seeking the intervention of Otumfuo Osei Tutu II to restrain the Agric-Nzemahene from participating in the Super Delegates Congress of the party.
He hoped Otumfuo would swiftly act to restrain his sub-chief from voting as a delegate, because he (Nana Nkansah Boadu Ayeboafo) was a duly nominated, selected, and enstooled Chief who had sworn the oath of allegiance to the Golden Stool of the great Ashanti Kingdom.