body-container-line-1
14.10.2008 General News

CPP blcklists Freddie Blay

By The Chronicle
CPP blcklists Freddie Blay
14.10.2008 LISTEN


The Chronicle newspaper says the First Deputy Speaker and Member of Parliament (MP) for Ellembele in the Western Region, Hon. Freddie Blay has found himself clutching at a straw in what is certain to be a death knell to his aspirations to ascend the Speaker's podium in the next Government.

This time round the Central Committee of the Convention People's Party (CPP) has explicitly excluded his name from the list of parliamentary aspirants of the party in confirmation forms sent to the regional executives of the party, for onward submission to the aspirants of the party to back them to pick their nomination forms as recognized aspirants of the party from the Electoral Commission.

Those who were privy to the scheme gave nothing away as Hon. Blay swung away at the courts, flexing his muscles and eventually winning over the Central Committee's decision to axe the rebellious MP whose Kangaroo antics dismayed the party and triggered a super secret design to torpedo him.

According to the Chronicle, when the party chided him for endorsing the NPP Presidential candidate instead of the CPP candidate, Hon. Blay turned his newspaper on Papa Kwesi Ndoum in a savage rout of the candidate.

The party decided to hit him where it hurts most, axe him a day before the Electoral Commission shuts the door to registration as parliamentary candidate.

Now it appears that the decision by the Central Committee of the party to 'black list' Freddie Blay's name from picking forms at the EC comes barely three days after an Accra Fast Track High Court overturned the decision of the Central Committee of the party to quash the decision of the party to disallow it from choosing a candidate to contest on its ticket. The pursuit of a court action is also moot.

The list of the confirmation forms with Freddie Blay's name completely missing out, is in a letter signed by the General Secretary of the party, Mr. Ivor Kobina Greenstreet to the regional executives of the party. Though the regional Chairman of the party, Mr. Gordon Samuel Etroo has confirmed the exclusion of the name of Freddie Blay from the list of the confirmation forms sent to the aspirants, he refused to comment any further, saying a decision has been taken already, but would not tell the Chronicle's reporter the kind of decision taken by the party. Mr. Etroo is a Blay supporter and battled in his corner when Blay's issue came up.

Nonetheless, the Regional Secretary, Mr. Kofi Alorzuke expressed his outrage over the decision, but also confirmed the exclusion of the name Freddie Blay at the Electoral Commission. He felt it was an attempt to sabotage him and delay him from picking forms at the EC.

According to the Secretary, he could not understand why after the court had cleared Freddie Blay of any wrongdoing with respect to his primary, the Central Committee could still go ahead to exclude him from the list of names that would be picking nomination forms from the EC.

According to the Secretary, he contacted Mr. Greenstreet, the General Secretary of the CPP who signed the said letter, which excluded Freddie Blay's name from the list of the parliamentary aspirants, to find out why such a decision was taken, after the court had cleared him.

His response was that the Court's decision would have to be officially communicated to the Central Committee to take a final decision on the issue, and that could be the reason why Freddie Blay's name was left out of the parliamentary aspirants' list of the party.

Continuing, Secretary Alorzuke, told The Chronicle that he was not satisfied with Greenstreet's explanation on why Hon. Blay was being blacklisted. He said the Standing Committee of the party in the region held a meeting last Saturday to take their own decision on the matter, and the decision was that all the confirmed forms of the parliamentary aspirants in the region have been withheld by the committee until Freddie Blay's own was included for onward submission to the aspirants.

Asked if the decision taken by the Standing Committee was not unconstitutional, Secretary Alorzuke replied that there was nothing unconstitutional about the decision taken by the Standing Committee.

body-container-line