The numerous court injunctions that have plagued the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) has compelled it to remove a controversial clause from the party’s election guidelines.
The clause stipulates that members of the party who wished to contest a regional position must have held an executive position in the constituency before.
The NDC was forced to postpone its National Delegates Congress which was scheduled for October 25, because of the several court actions challenging the unlawful disqualification of some candidates contesting various positions in the party.
[contextly_sidebar id=”zLozGiqkogobr20RiqCkz8hfU9k0l7cA”]According to the party, the particular clause has caused dissatisfaction among some of its members, thereby leading to the numerous court actions.
The National Executive Committee of the NDC after a meeting on Tuesday removed the clause after agitations from aggrieved party members.
Speaking to Citi News, the General Secretary of the party Johnson Asiedu Nketia said the review is in compliance with an order by a Kumasi High Court to resolve a case brought against them by a member of the party, out of court.
He explained that the NEC drafted the guidelines for the election and directed the national secretariat of the party to implement and interpret it.
He said; “out of disagreements emanating from sections of the guidelines, some members of the party decided to go to court challenging the constitutionality of sections of the guidelines and in particular, almost all the court cases were challenging the constitutionality of the rule.”
“This has attracted majority of the challenges in court. The learned judge in the Kumasi high court case suggested that the party should take steps to try and deal with the issue internally,” he added.
According to Asiedu Nketia, the party after the removal of the clause will re-open nominations at the regional level for five days to allow for others who were otherwise disqualified from contesting to also file their nomination.
He further added that the decision will be implemented only after the court case has been dealt with.
“But having said that I need to draw the attention of party members across the country that we are a democratic party and we submit to the rule of law and so once there is a matter pending in court which has attracted an injunction, any step that will be taken towards re-opening of nomination or anything at all about the election will constitute contempt of the court. We will proceed to handle the court matters and once we are able to resolve the matter and the court has agreed and the injunction has been removed then we can proceed to implement these decisions,” he indicated.
–
By: Godwin Allotey Akweiteh/citifmonline.com/Ghana