NDC Member Drags Party To Court

Bossman Oduro-Fosu

Bossman Oduro-Fosu
An aspiring executive member of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) in the Greater Accra Region, Bossman Oduro-Fosu, has initiated a court action against the party, asking it to place a perpetual injunction on the election of regional committee members of the party until the revocation of paragraph 6 (c) vi of the party's constitution.

The paragraph states that 'In addition, a member of the party shall not qualify to vie for a regional executive committee position unless the member has prior to seeking elections held an executive position in the constituency.'

His call comes in the wake of a threat he issued few weeks ago to drag the party to court should it amend the guidelines for the election of regional executive members.

According to Mr Oduro-Fosu, the purported paragraph was added to the party's constitution without going to congress for amendment, hence the need for the court to declare it null and void.

He is also praying the court to declare the results issued by the National Executive Committee for the election of party executive officers for 2014 as unconstitutional due to the reliance on paragraph 6 (c) vi.

Statement of claim 
In the statement of claim, Mr Oduro-Fosu, who is a member of the Dome-Kwabenya Constituency of the NDC, said the supposed addition was in direct conflict with Article 42 (1) which states that 'A person shall not be qualified to hold office as a member of the Executive Committee of the party at any level if he does not meet the conditions for membership as set out in clause 2 of Article 8 of this constitution.'

He further argues that Article 42 (3) d of the constitution states that 'the party Executive Committee at that level shall decide on the eligibility or otherwise of any candidate.'

Assertion by deputy national organiser 
Mr Oduro-Fosu's plea also indicated that an assertion by the Deputy National Organiser of the NDC, Mr Baba Sheriff Abudulai, that any NDC member vying for the party's national and regional executive position would be disqualified if they had not held any executive position within the party or government was in contravention of the party's Constitution.

In contrast to the above claim, Mr Oduro-Fosu referred to Article 42 (1) f of the NDC Constitution thus, 'no member of the party is qualified to vie for a National Executive Committee position unless the member has prior to seeking election held an executive position within the party or government.'

From the above, Mr Oduro-Fosu said it was clear that the provision applied to only those seeking to serve on the National Executive Committee and not the Regional Executive Committee.

He, as a result, described the interpretation by Mr Abudula as incorrect and absurd.

Decision at NEC
Reacting to the story, the Greater Accra Regional Secretary of the NDC, Mr Aristo Nii Aryee, admitted that any member of the party had the right to go to court whenever he or she had an issue with parts of the constitution.

He, however, stated that the paragraph in contention, together with other guidelines, had already been decided upon at the National Executive Committee level of the party before the executive election, adding that it was not done to disqualify candidates whatsoever.

Mr Aryee, who is also the Municipal Chief Executive of the Ga Central Municipal Assembly, added that such guidelines applied to the election of national executives of the party at all levels.

'Per Article 50 of the NDC Constitution, the National Executive Committee reserves the right to set out the broad guidelines for the election of any executive of the party,' he said.

He refuted claims that the guidelines were amendments to the constitution of the party.

The reason for such directives, he explained, was to guide the conduct of members contesting for various positions in the party.

Mr Aryee further added that such directives were passed in order to get the crop of members who understood the vision of the party to help move it into a better future.

Source:Graphic Online