NDC expunges 'bad' clause from guidelines
The National Executive Committee (NEC) of the the National Democratic Congress has expunged the clause preventing members from standing for party positions unless they have occupied positions at the lower level of the party or in government.
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The party will, therefore, re-open nominations for members to contest various positions at the regional level. This will enable those who were disqualified to pick their forms and file their nominations to contest the regional positions.
Clause C, sub- section 6 of the guidelines of the party states that “Before any member of the NDC contests the regional election, he or she must have held a position at the lower level of the party or government.”
But at an emergency NEC meeting of the party in Accra yesterday, it expunged the clause preventing members from standing for party positions unless they had occupied positions at the lower level of the party or in government.
According to the General Secretary of NDC, Mr Johnson Asiedu Nketia, who briefed the press in Accra yesterday, he said that the need to call the NEC meeting to expunge the clause was imperative to bring harmony into party affairs.
He noted that the withdrawal of the clause from the guidelines could go a long way to give equal opportunity to all members interested in contesting party positions.
He said when the guidelines were seen to be fair to everybody, the number of court cases could be curbed to enable the party to fix new dates for the regional and national congresses.
As part of the preparations for the organisation of the regional and national congresses, Mr Asiedu Nketia said the NEC had approved the setting up of electoral committees to prepare the party for the elections as soon as the cases in court had been dealt with.
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Mr Asiedu Nketia mentioned some of the electoral committees as the National Congress Planning Committee, which, he said, was the umbrella committee under which publicity, material and logistic committee would operate.
The NEC meeting was attended by the party’s National Chairman, Dr Kwabena Adjei, the General Secretary, Mr Johnson Asiedu Nketia, and regional chairmen of the party.
The regional and national executive elections of the party, scheduled for October 24-26, is in limbo as a result of a number of court cases.
The NDC’s crucial NEC meeting, therefore, discussed sensitive constitutional issues of the party, as well as when the party would finally settle all the court cases to pave the way for the national congress.
Some officials of the party were of the view that since the cases had been taken to court, they should allow due process to continue to its final and logical conclusion while others were of the opinion that the issues could be settled out of court in order not to affect the electoral calendar of the party.