GoosieTandoh
Augustus Obuadum ‘Goosie’ Tanoh, a flagbearer aspirant of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) has allayed the fears of his supporters, saying he has not withdrawn from the contest.
According to Mr. Tanoh, even though he did not pick a nomination form at the close of Tuesday, December 4 deadline, he has not developed cold feet towards the party’s presidential primary.
“Goosie Tanoh is not withdrawing from the flagbearer position of the NDC,” he told the Ghanaian Times via a WhatsApp message.
Assigning reasons why he did not pick the nomination form and paid the fee of 20,000 Ghana cedis, he explained that his campaign team chose not to participate in an unlawful electoral arrangement that trampled upon the rights of millions of party members.
He said his team would take all legitimate means to ensure equity and fairness in the processes leading to the primary including legal redress if necessary.
“We will also take whatever steps political or legal to protect our interests and the interests of the party masses,” he cautioned.
Mr. Tanoh, affectionately call Goosie by NDC faithful, and seven other aspirants have flown the red flag over what they described as exorbitant nomination and filing fees and bias shown by some national executive members towards a particular candidate.
However, three out of the petitioners, Professor Joshua Alabi, Mr Sylvester Mensah, and Mr Stephen Atubiga, who had sided with Goosie and sent a petition to the founder of the party, nonetheless, picked their nominations forms on Tuesday.
Mr. Tanoh maintained that his campaign would illustrate the deep malaise in the NDC, explore ways in which it could be cured and “encourage the grassroots to join hands to defend social justice”.
Explaining further he said his campaign team believed there were three legal grounds halt and review the primaries process.
This he said was because the National Executive Council (NEC) had not met the procedural requirements for issuing guidelines for primary.
“NEC has exceeded its authority in issuing guidelines; NEC has included in the guidelines 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’s constitution. NEC can only provide guidelines for implementing what is in the constitution – not change it,” he said.
The aspirant reiterated his call for an impartial body such as the Electoral Commission to take charge of the process, claiming some members of NEC including the national chairman, Samuel Ofosu Ampofo and General Secretary; Johnson Asiedu Nketia had made public declarations of support for the candidacy of former President John Mahama.
“With the level of demonstrated bias, other contestants simply cannot trust NEC to run the primaries in a free and fair manner,” he added.
Mr. Tanoh also accused NEC of imposing an unreasonable election timetable on the party, saying, “NEC appears to be in a desperate hurry to conclude the primary. Congress gave up to March, yet NEC proposes to do this in January even though they indicate they have not raised the money.”
By IAN MOTEY
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