Atebubu-Amantin NDC Threatens Boycott

The Atebubu-Amantin constituency executive of the National Democratic Congress has threatened to boycott all activities of the party in the constituency if the regional executive of the party decides to go ahead with the re-run of the party’s constituency primaries which was declared null and void by a Sunyani High Court last week Wednesday.

The ruling by the High Court presided over by Mr Justice Bresford Acquah ruled in favour of the NDC sitting Member of Parliament (MP), Mr Emmanuel Owusu Mainu, who had petitioned the court challenging the results of the party’s constituency primaries held in January 28, this year and won by Mr Sanja Nanja, the District Chief Executive (DCE) for Atebubu-Amantin.

Mr Nanja obtained 237 out of 531 total number of votes cast while his closest rival, Mr Mainu had 218 of the votes cast. The sitting MP who lost the primaries was said to have conceded defeated and pledged to work with Mr Nanja at the primaries held at Beposo which was supervised by the Electoral Commission (EC) and organised by the regional executive on behalf of the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the party.

The decision to boycott all activities of the party was announced at a press conference at Atebubu last Friday by the constituency Chairman, Mr George Kyere Mensah.

He said following the announcement of the court ruling, supporters of the party in the constituency decided to embark on a massive demonstration against the re-run of the primaries but the constituency executive moved in swiftly and impressed on them to exercise restraint.

Mr Mensah, therefore, called on the national and regional executive committees to act now or risk disintegrating the party in the constituency.

He wondered why the sitting MP, who was defeated at the primaries, did not raise any objection when the results were declared and even went ahead to concede defeat and congratulated Mr Nanja for winning the primaries and also pledged to work with him to ensure a resounding victory for the party in the constituency only to turn round in four days time to file a petition at the High Court to nullify the results.

Mr George Lawson, a deputy general secretary of the party in an interview on Joy FM, an Accra-based radio station last Friday, said the NEC of the party had no knowledge of any court ruling.

He said the regional executive had no power to organise re-run of the primaries because the petition filed by Mr Mainu was against the EC and not the party, adding that it was the NEC of the party which had the power to organise primaries of the party and not the region.

Mr Lawson said the primaries in Atebubu-Amantin was organised on behalf of the NEC by the regional executive and therefore had no standing to call for a re-run and moreover the party contracted the EC to supervise the primaries which was organised by the NEC of the party.

He, therefore, stated that the ruling was against the EC and not the party since Mr Mainu filed the petition against the EC and not the party.

He added that Mr Mainu should have exhausted the internal mechanisms in resolving such issues in the party before going to court but failed to do so.

The court ruling, among other things, ordered that nobody should hold himself as the NDC parliamentary candidate for the constituency.