NDC explains why two presidential candidates could not vote

General News of Sunday, February 24, 2019

Source: ghananewsagency.org

2019-02-24

Mr. Bede Ziedeng, Acting National Democratic Congress (NDC) Election Director, states that according to the Party Election Code, two presidential candidates, Mr. Goosie Tanoh and Alhaji Iddrisu Nurudeen, are not qualified to vote at the presidential primary.

Hence their inability to exercise their right to vote in Saturday's polls.

Addressing the Ghanaian news agency at the NDC headquarters in Accra, Mr. Ziedeng stated that the presidential candidate's constituency was governed by Article 42 (1G) of the Code of Conduct. conducting party elections.

According to this article, the NDC Electoral College for the primary presidential election includes all members of the executive committee of the branch, all members of the constituency executive committee, all members of the regional executive committee and all members of the national executive committee.

The others are all members of the party's parliamentary group, ie 15 representatives from each external branch of the party, including the youth organizer and the representatives of the organizers.

Five representatives of the network of tertiary institutions, including two women; the members of the Council of Wise Men at the national and regional levels, the President of the Republic, or the former Presidents and Vice-Presidents, who are members of the party; and every founding member of the party,

The others are former ministers of state and former vice ministers of state, former deputies, party members; former presidential staff, former chiefs of metropolitan, municipal and district government, former ambbadadors and high commissioners, and former members of the state party members.

Mr Ziedeng said these people were entitled to vote in an election of the presidential candidate of the NDC.

"In this regard, if one of the presidential candidates does not meet the requirements of these regulations to participate in elections, he can certainly contest an election but does not have a vote in this election ", did he declare.

He added that Mr. Tanoh and Alhaji Nurudeen had qualified under the NDC's guidelines to contest the elections but that, according to the same guidelines, they could not vote.

With regard to another presidential candidate, Professor Joshua Alabi failed to put his name on the register of delegates, which was then inserted to enable him to vote; Zeideng said Professor Alabi, as a former member of parliament and former minister, was eligible to be elected.

He stated that the omission of his name was an oversight and that the registers had been prepared from constituency levels and transmitted at the national level.

Mr. Ziedeng noted that Professor Alabi was not the only case to deal with, but that other people had also accidentally missed their names due to an oversight.

"We had up to 275 incoming registries in the polls, and in fact, it was difficult to go through all the registers to make sure the names of the people were well captured," M said. Ziedeng.

He added that in the future, the party would pay particular attention to the preparation of the register and would also ensure that there is a time limit for its exhibition in order to allow delegates to check their name.