NDC Set For Congress

About 3,629 delegates of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) are expected to attend the party's national delegates' conference  at the Baba Yara Sports Stadium in Kumasi tomorrow to elect national officers to lead the political grouping to the 2016 general elections.

Tomorrow's congress sets the tone for the adoption of various amendments fashioned out by the  Ken Dzirasah 's constitutional review committee, which included the expansion of the party's electoral college to debase the power of kingmakers and give ownership of the party to the grassroots.

The election of the party's new National Executive Committee (NEC) will pave way for the election of a presidential candidate ahead of the next general elections to be organised by the Electoral Commission as its Chairman, Dr Kwadwo Afari-Gyan, takes a bow.

The Ashanti Regional Secretary of the NDC, Raymond Tandoh, told DAILY GUIDE, 'All is set for the congress which has 84 ministers of state, 216 Metropolitan/Municipal/District Chief Executives (MMDCEs), 147 Members of Parliament (MPs), 30 national executives, and 10 NEC members as delegates.

'The rest are 77 founding members; 15 Council of Elders; 100 regional delegates; 2,750 constituency delegates and 200 Diaspora delegates.'

Mr Tandoh stated that accommodation and security had been arranged with feeding and transportation well catered for by the committee responsible for such activities.

According to him, President John Mahama and other party gurus were expected to attend the congress.

He indicated that despite the fact that the positions were being keenly contested by bigwigs of the party, it was his expectation that the congress would be incident-free and present a united front to go into the 2016 polls.

Palace Coup
Meanwhile, ahead of the congress, some party members have begun expressing concern about the amendments to be adopted, citing them as a grand scheme to stage a palace coup against the sitting president, John Dramani Mahama.

Robert Gyamesi, Adansi Akrofuom constituency secretary, who is one of the apprehensive members, alleged of a ploy to use the amendments to replace President Mahama, particularly the one relating to the expansion of the Electoral College.

According to him, the plan to implement the proposed Electoral College expansion immediately after its adoption would amount to an unfair treatment as it would be detrimental to Mr Mahama and the current MPs that might seek re-election.

Mr Gyamesi said in as much as he was for the adoption of the proposals, he wanted them to be implemented in the next congress after tomorrow's one.

From Ernest Kofi Adu, Kumasi