‘NDC Will Not Lose Klottey Korle Seat’ – Coker

Joseph Ade Coker

No matter the outcome of the court case between Dr Zanetor Agyeman-Rawlings and Nii Armah Ashitey, the governing National Democratic Congress (NDC) will never lose the parliamentary seat in the Klottey Korle Constituency, the Greater Accra Regional Chairman of the NDC, Joseph Ade Coker, has assured.

Mr Ade Coker, who was a guest on the Executive Breakfast Show on Class FM Friday April 29, told the host Ekow Mensah-Shalders that: “As for the seat, we will not lose it. Currently there are some challenges there and those challenges are being dealt with in the relevant areas. These are matters of law that we should allow the court to deal with, but on the ground we are working.”

Dr Agyeman-Rawlings won the NDC parliamentary primary in November last year, but her eligibility has been challenged. Ghana’s electoral laws require that a parliamentary aspirant be a registered voter. Dr Rawlings’ main contender in the poll, incumbent Nii Armah Ashitey, has filed a suit praying the court to declare her unfit to run for parliament since she was not a registered voter at the time.

The former Greater Accra Minister is backed by some other members of the NDC in the constituency.

Mr Ashitey filed a joint suit with fellow defeated candidate Nii John Coleman at the Accra High Court, but Coleman later withdrew from the case, leaving Mr Ashitey as the only plaintiff.

But Dr Agyeman-Rawlings later filed an application at the Supreme Court with her lawyers arguing that the High Court did not have jurisdiction to hear the case and that the case was premature as she had not filed with the Electoral Commission to be a parliamentary candidate yet.

They are, therefore, seeking “an order of prohibition directed to Justice Kwaku T. Ackah Boafo of the High Court”, to stop the judge from hearing the case at the High Court.

The case has been adjourned to 3 May 2016.
But Mr Coker believes the case has not resulted in any divisions within the supporter base of the party in the constituency and unity will prevail after the final verdict of the case for them to focus on defeating their opponents.

He said the party recently organised a forum where the parties involved in the case were present and other individuals within the constituency had the chance to voice out their grievances.

He held the view that: “Whoever emerges, we will close our ranks, and the margin there will go up this time [in the November 7 polls] and of all of them [party supporters] know that we must win the seat. One good aspect of NDC is how to close our ranks. At the end of the day we will come together to fight the enemy.”

The opposition New Patriotic Party’s Philip Addison, Eva Lokko of the Progressive People’s Party (PPP), and Valentino Nii Noi Nortey, who decided to go independent after losing to Mr Addison in the parliamentary re-run, are some of the aspirants who have expressed interest in contesting the seat on November 7, 2016.