Goosie Tanoh’s affiliates ask NEC to comply with Party’s Constitution

The Group, known as “04GH,” in a statement signed by Mr Kyeretwie Opoku, the Coordinator, and copied to the Ghana News Agency, said eight flagbearer aspirants including Mr Tanoh filed a petition on the issue

to the Party’s Council of Elders.

It said the Council of Elders was charged by Article 24 (5a) of the NDC Constitution to “resolve disputes among party members as well as the various institutions of the Party”.

However, it said the aspirants had not heard from the Council as at Tuesday, December 4, 2018 and accordingly, several candidates including Mr Tanoh declined on principle to collect nomination forms as this might serve to legitimise the unlawful guidelines.

The statement alleged that the NEC had exceeded its authority in issuing guidelines for presidential primaries by including a requirement that a contestant must have been a Party member for at least 10 years.

“This is not in the Constitution. Only Congress can amend the Party Constitution. NEC can only provide guidelines for implementing what is in the Constitution and not change it,” it added.

It alleged that the NEC had shown bias in its management of the process towards the primaries and by that other contestants could not trust it to run the primaries in a free and fair manner.

The statement called for another body like the Electoral Commission to be in charge of the process.

It called on the NEC to take a second look at the filing fees in order not to prevent members of the Party from offering themselves for leadership positions.

“If the NDC believes in grassroots empowerment and in equal opportunity for all, regardless of income levels, then it cannot place access to leadership positions out of the reach of ordinary members,” the statement said.

GNA

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