Court Stops NDC Elections

Dr. Kwabena Adjei, NDC National Chairman
A Kumasi High Court has ordered the national executives of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) to hold on with the elections for the National Executive Committee and the Ashanti Regional Executive Committee for a 10-day period.

The order follows an Ex-parte motion filed against the defendants NDC through its National Chairman, Dr. Kwabena Adjei, and the members of the National Executive Committee of the party.

A member of the party, Njonolah Linus, who is the immediate past President of Tertiary Institution Net-work (TEIN) of the party at Akrokerri College of Education, instituted the action against the NDC and its national officers for allegedly overstaying their mandated tenure of office.

The plaintiff said the defendants had no business to spearhead the impending elections to choose fresh officers for the regional and national executive committees, ask-ing them to desist from going ahead with any processes leading to such elections.

According to Linus, without re-election as guaranteed in the constitution of the NDC, the executive members could not lawfully act for and on behalf of the first defendant without a valid renewal of their respective terms of office through elections.

He alleged that the defendants were using their expired mandates to disqualify most card-bearing members of the NDC from taking part in the impending elections.

The plaintiff said national and regional executive members had will-fully failed and or refused to observe the provisions of the constitution of the first defendant (NDC), while purporting to be acting for and on behalf of the party.

Linus argued that the second defendant's action to disqualify card- bearing members was willfully done without recourse to the guidelines for the election of the party's executive officers.

Madina Polls Called Off
Meanwhile, the Madi-na Constituency election which was to take place yesterday, was called off at the eleventh hour following a protestation by the constituency chairperson, Rejoice Ahiable, who accused the acting con-stituency secretary and some regional executives of the party of disregarding a court injunction.

Following the injunc-tion, the Electoral Com-mission (EC) officials

refused to conduct the elections for fear of being cited for contempt, while the Regional Chairman, Kobina Ade Coker, called the bluff of the court.

However, realizing the seriousness of the case, Ade Coker, who is allegedly causing trouble in the NDC in Accra, supported the cancellation of the elections to avoid being jailed by the court for contempt.

According to Madam Ahiable, a court injunction placed on the elections makes it contemptuous for anyone to go ahead with and conduct them.

'We are having issues and the case is in court. I was surprised when I was

told that the Regional Executives have called for elections today”, she told Joy Fm yesterday.

She suspected the Member of Parliament (MP) of masterminding the development which she said was unconstitutional.

“They all know the constitution and we are all abiding by the constitution. Regional Executives do not hold conference for us; not even the MP,” she said

FROM Ernest Kofi Adu, Kumasi
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