6 NDC aspirants fly red flag

Bede

Six presidential aspirants seeking to lead the opposition National Democratic Congress have once again petitioned the party, raising some issues ahead of the upcoming flagbearer primary slated for February 23, 2019.

Some of the concerns they raised had to do with the company to print the ballot papers, as well as the voters’ register which they claimed came without photographs.

According to the six aspirants namely: Alban S.K. Bagbin, Nurudeen Ali, Sylvester Mensah, Ekwow Spio-Garbrah, Goosie Tanoh and Joshua Alabi, the party should award the contract for the printing of the ballot papers to a trustworthy firm such as the Assembly Press, to ensure that some of the irregularities that rocked the party’s national executive election held in November 2018 do not re-occur this time around.

 

“We are also deeply concerned about the apparent decision to award the contract for printing of the ballots to the same company that printed ballots for the November NEC elections.

As you are no doubt aware, several contestants and observers of those elections have described significant irregularities with the ballot papers.”

“These include incorrect spelling of aspirants’ names, mismatching of pictures and names and presence of duplicate ballot papers (i.e. with the same supposedly “unique” serial number).

All of these irregularities have been cited in a discourse that calls the legitimacy of the outcome of some of the NEC elections in question,” the aspirants added in the petition.

The petition was addressed to the party’s National Election Commission and copied to the Chairman of NDC’s National Council of Elders, Jerry John Rawlings, NDC General Secretary, Johnson Asiedu Nketia and party Chairman, Samuel Ofosu Ampofo.

The six aspirants also called on the Election Committee to furnish them with a voter’s register which contains photographs of the voters.

They complained in their petition that the “voters’ register provided to aspirants only consists simply of a list of names without photographs, voter ID card numbers or even party membership card numbers”.

“There is also considerable inconsistency in the formatting. Our concern obviously is that this approach creates opportunities for voter impersonation and unnecessary confusion on polling day,” they added.

They also requested for a briefing on polling day logistics, transportation and feeding.

“Our teams are immediately available to meet with FEC [Functional Election Committee] or the Electoral Committee to discuss these matters and achieve acceptable solutions that prevent further disruption to the proposed election schedule,” the six presidential aspirants added.

Seven stalwarts of the NDC are currently seeking to be its flagbearer in the 2020 poll as the party has scheduled to hold an election for them on February 23, 2019.

All the seven had duly been vetted and balloting for the slots on the ballot paper were done last Wednesday.

Former President John Dramani Mahama picked the third slot on the ballot paper.

The Member of Parliament for Nadowli-Kaleo, Alban Bagbin, picked the first slot followed by businessman, Nurudeen Iddrisu.

The fourth slot was picked by Sylvester Mensah, followed by Ekwow Spio-Garbrah, Goosie Tanoh and Prof. Joshua Alabi in that order.

The NDC’s Acting Director of Elections, Bede Zieding, told the media that printing of ballot papers will take place from 3rd to 17th February 2019, after which they would be forwarded to all their constituency centres where the election would be held.

-citifmonline.com

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