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17.10.2007 NPP

NPP Rebels Against DCE

17.10.2007 LISTEN
By Daily Guide

The District Chief Executive (DCE) for Bole, Mrs. Elizabeth Salamatu Forgor's dream of contesting the Bole-Bamboi seat unopposed may not materialize as some polling station executives are rebelling against her sole candidature.

A total of 42 polling station executives out of 67 who would decide on who to be the party's parliamentary candidate have appended their signatures to a petition to the Northern Regional leadership of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) in Tamale, urging them to re-open nominations for the Bole-Bamboi constituency so those who wanted to contest for the seat could file their nominations.

A copy of the petition dated October 4, this year and faxed to DAILY GUIDE stated that Mrs. Forgor, using her position as a DCE, maneuvered her way through to become the sole parliamentary aspirant vying for the Bole-Bamboi seat on the ticket of the NPP.

According to the petition, the DCE, with the consent of some constituency and regional executives of the party in Bole and Tamale, failed to announce the opening of nominations for the Bole-Bamboi seat until the last day to the close of nominations.

Following this short announcement, members of the NPP who aspired to lead the party as parliamentary candidates could not file their nominations.

To safeguard democracy and the party's ambition of winning the Bole-Bamboi seat for the first time in the next general elections, the polling station executives advised that nominations be opened again to allow any member of the party eyeing the seat to also file.

The polling station executives stated in the petition that they were of strong conviction that Mrs. Forgor would not win the seat as a result of her bad leadership tactics, stressing that if she was allowed to stand unopposed on the ticket of the party, the “skirt and blouse” style of voting might hit the NPP.

“As grassroots politicians of the party, and with our own baseline survey, it is very clear that the unacceptable and unconstitutional behaviour of the DCE is in no doubt impacting negatively on the development of the party in the constituency.”

The petitioners feared that the conduct of the DCE could cast a slur on the image of the NPP in the Bole-Bamboi constituency and the nation as a whole if she was allowed to contest for the seat unopposed.

To prove their point, the 42 polling station executives challenged the regional and national executives of the party to conduct a comprehensive investigation in the constituency to ascertain whether Mrs. Forgor was a marketable candidate or not.

The executives alleged that the DCE, instead of uniting party members, had rather succeeded in dividing the rank and file of the party, showing disrespect for its members in the constituency.

The document maintained further that the DCE had failed to work through the youth and women who formed the majority of voters in the area, adding that she neglected this group to rather focus on people outside the constituency.

The DCE, when contacted, refuted the allegations, explaining that she was not a party executive and so could not have kept the nomination forms to herself.

She added that the claims were only meant to drag her name in the mud.

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