The country's largest opposition party, National Democratic Congress (NDC), is voting to select those who will represent its constituencies in the 2020 election.
Some 524 aspirants are gunning to become parliamentary candidates of the NDC across 157 constituencies.
Five constituencies have been put on hold pending the outcome of some hitches; also, the elections are not taking place in constituencies where the sitting MP is unopposed, General Secretary of the party Johnson Asiedu Nketiah said at a press beefing.
The Greater Accra Region has the highest number of 31 constituencies billed for the first batch.
The rest are Volta Region, 17; Northern, 15; Central, 13; Upper East,13; Eastern, 10; Upper West, 9; Bono East, 9; Bono, 8; Oti, 8; Western,6; North East, 4; Savannah, 4; Western North, 12; Ashanti, 3, and Ahafo, 1.
There will be no elections in 74 constituencies, which will constitute the second batch for the primaries.
Five constituencies had been put on hold pending investigations by the party’s special committee set up to address internal issues.
They are Asawase, Mpohor, Yilo Krobo, Fanteakwa North and Ellembelle.
In all, 578 aspirants filed to contest in all the 275 constituencies out of which 524 were cleared to contest the elections.
Explaining why the party decided to organise the elections in batches, the General Secretary of the NDC, Mr Johnson Asiedu Nketia, said the reason was to allow the special committee to address the party’s internal issues in some constituencies.
He said the party decided that instead of approaching the elections from the angle of orphan constituencies first before tackling the constituencies with Members of Parliament (MPs) or vice-versa, “We have decided that we will tackle the constituencies in batches and so the first batch is readyâ€.
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