A Deputy General Secretary of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), Mustapha Foyo Gbande, has averred that a decision taken by the leadership of the party regarding the rerun of the Amenfi Central parliamentary primary is in the right direction.
Gbande contends the move is not a step ahead of the court whose ruling on the matter is yet to be delivered.
Heading into the 2024 elections, Mr. Gbande says the party is properly positioned to make decisions that will safeguard its prospects in the upcoming polls.
He tells Alfred Ocansey on Ghana Tonight Thursday, September 05, 2024, that although the court says it would rule on the matter in October, the party leadership thought it wise to take that prudent decision to rerun the poll in order to meet the Electoral Commission’s timelines.
“The party is well positioned to take strategic decisions as we advance towards the general election. We have declared Amenfi Central as a conflicting constituency where there is dispute about legitimacy of candidate and all of that. So, the court in Sekondi has adjourned the matter for judgement in October and by law, we are supposed to file all our candidates on the 9th or 10th of September.
“And so if we wait for the court, by the time the court determines the matter, we wouldn’t have a candidate to file and so we run our party regardless the court. And so we have decided that because the members who are conflicting are all members of the NDC, we have annulled the results and say let every aspirant reapply for us to re-run the election so that we start afresh,” he explained.
“We are not going ahead of the court. We run our party exclusively from the court. But we are in a position as a party to take decision strategically that puts us at a proper place to run an election,” he said when asked if the decision is not ahead of the court.
His comments follow the annulment of the Amenfi Central parliamentary primary that was conducted on May 13, 2023.
The party in a statement signed and issued by its General Secretary, Franklin Fifi Kwetey Thursday, September 05, 2024, noted that the election was being challenged at the Sekondi High Court.
“In the reliefs (c), (d) and (e) of the Plaintiffs’ action, they seek from the court, the annulment of the parliamentary primary election result and an order for rerun of the election,” the statement issued by Fifi Kwetey contained.
He said the decision was arrived by the Functional Executive Committee of the party at its meeting on Tuesday, September 03, 2024 where they decided to annul the results for a re-run.
“Accordingly, the Parliamentary primaries conducted on the 13th May 2023 in Amenfi Central have been annulled forthwith. The party has decided to open fresh nominations for the conduct of the primaries in Amenfi Central Constituency,” he stated.
Nominations will be opened on Friday, September 6, 2024, and will be filed on Saturday, September 7, 2024. Vetting and appeal will also take place on Saturday and the election will be held on Sunday, September 8, 2024.
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