Bagbin accused of imposition

The Executive of the Nadowli North Constituency of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) has condemned Minority Leader in Parliament, Mr. Alban Bagbin for declaring his intention to stand for re-election on the ticket of the party.

A statement signed by the constituency chairman, Mr. Ishak Dapilaa, said although the Minority Leader had the constitutional right to declare his intention to stand for re-election, it was unacceptable for him to state that his decision was the result of appeals by members the constituency branch of the NDC.

It said Mr. Bagbin's announcement was tantamount to imposing himself to the electorate as he had already declared himself as the NDC candidate before Congress. "We the constituency Executive want to use this opportunity to inform all our supporters not to be scared by such a statement because it is not true and we also wish to encourage all interested persons who have the intention of contesting under NDC ticket come the year 2004 general elections to prepare for primaries next year".

The statement said the Executive want to avoid the imposition of candidates on electorate, which was partly responsible for the poor performance of NDC in the 2000 general elections.

"In our constituency alone we lost more than 2,000 prominent supporters and we feel it is too early for us to be hearing such statements". It added that Mr. Bagbin's conduct was likely to sow seeds of discord among the rank and file and called on the party members to ignore the Minority's Leaders premature statement.