Ahead of the National Democratic Congress’ (NDC) delegates’ congress to elect new leaders in December this year, the committee charged to oversee amendment of the constitution has been accused of engaging in moves that will eventually see John Mahama emerge as the party’s leader going into the 2024 polls.
The Constitutional Amendment Committee of the NDC according to Angelonline.com.gh sources is seeking to disenfranchise some delegates.
It has emerged that the Constitutional Amendment Committee has resolved to smuggle in obnoxious laws and remove delegates at the branch level and prevent them from voting.
According to Article 42G of the NDC’s constitution, which talks about Presidential elections in the party and who is eligible to vote, Branch executives, Constituency, Regional, National Executives and founding members are permitted to vote.
However, the source claims that the committee wants to expunge the branch executives from the list. The move is to allegedly pave way for former President John Mahama to lead the party for the fourth consecutive time.
This is coming at a time a leading member of the party, Dr Kwabena Duffour’s name popped up in the flagbearship race.
Due to his popularity at the grassroots level, some members of the party who are pro-John Mahama are said to be deliberately trying to sideline Dr. Duffour to give their favorite an advantage.
Dr. Duffour’s self-help public finance practical ‘Ahotor project’ has been widely accepted by the grassroots as it brings hope to the various branches and constituencies to be self-financing.
According to the source, the unwarranted exercise by the Committee has raised questions as it believes, would impact the fortunes of the party going into the 2024 elections.
The move to ensure that the ward statutory officials of the party are excluded from certain party nomination processes at the state level which will put the party in bad light, a situation some have vowed to oppose.
The source, who noted that some members of the party who have vowed to resist the move, said that “it is a Constitutional breach and is an evil agenda against the grassroots.”
The source said that the objective of having the delegates at the ward and the grassroots to integrate the people and give power back to the people has been defeated with the planned action.
On the planned amendment, the source said, “the party must be people-centered to make any reasonable impact in the coming elections since the expansion of the party statutory delegates to the ward level was to achieve the objective of bringing the party closer to the grass root. An attempt of this nature will, therefore, be a nullity since it will not meet the stipulated constitutional positions,” it added.
