National Democratic Congress
The opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) held secret primaries for its members to contest the upcoming District Assembly Elections slated for December 17.
The same party turned around and accused President Akufo-Addo of trying to politicize local elections when his government tried to open the process for political parties to participate fully and sponsor candidates at the local level.
Because of the plan to amend certain clauses in the 1992 Constitution to enable political parties to sponsor candidates at the local level, the NDC made a U-turn and started campaigning for a ‘No’ vote, and the President was compelled to cancel the referendum citing lack of consensus.
Now, it is emerging that the NDC has started suspending all members who lost the secret primaries and are bent on contesting as ‘independent’ candidates in the various electoral areas after being warned not to go into the contest.
A classic case has happened in the Oko Mantey Electoral Area at Ashaiman in the Greater Accra Region where the NDC says it has suspended Alfred Godonu who lost the primary but has declared that he is contesting to become the next assembly member for the area.
The suspension letter and the invitation letter
DAILY GUIDE has sighted two documents, with one of them inviting Mr. Godonu to appear before the constituency executives and respond to questions in relation to the violation of article 46 clause 7d of the NDC constitution regarding rules and regulations on District Assembly Elections.
The invitation letter was jointly signed by Tony Afenyo and Allan Degraft-Quansah, the Constituency Chairman and the Constituency Secretary, respectively.
“You are hereby ordered to appear before the Constituency Executives to explain why disciplinary action should not be taken against you concerning going contrary to party rules and regulations on the District Assembly Election. You are ordered to appear on 25th Nov. 2019 without fail,” the letter from the Ashaiman Constituency NDC read.
DAILY GUIDE learnt that Mr. Godonu could not appear before the party executives and was subsequently given a suspension letter that ordered him to relinquish his position as a branch executive of the party.
“You are hereby suspended from acting on behalf of the party as a Branch Executive of the National Democratic Congress (NDC).You will be referred to the Disciplinary Committee for the appropriate action,” according to the second letter issued on December 2, 2019 and signed by the same constituency chairman and secretary.
Information available to DAILY GUIDE indicates that prior to the opening of nomination by the Electoral Commission (EC) for interested persons to contest the District Assembly Elections, the NDC selected their candidates through an organised primary which was fully funded by the party although the NDC has recently claimed the assembly election is non-partisan, for which reason Ghanaians should vote ‘No’ in the referendum.
The NDC went ahead to select a candidate, Godwin Tsemase, the incumbent assembly member, against Mr. Godonu, a former assembly member, in an internal party primary held in the Electoral Area a couple of months ago.
However, Mr. Godonu, after losing, insisted he would contest the election citing Article 55(3) of the 1992 Constitution which makes it non-partisan.
Mr. Godonu was asked by the NDC to step down for the selected candidate of the party but he has since refused, leading to the suspension.
A resident said “a party that cannot be truthful deserves no chance in government because it will not be truthful if it comes to power.”
From Vincent Kubi, Ashaiman
(vincentkubi@yahoo.com)