Honorable Kofi Attor affirms recent NDC NY branch elections

The Director of International Relations, Hon. Kofi Attor met with members of NDC New York Branch at 590 Grand Concourse, Bronx, New York during a visit to the United States. Mr. Attor briefed members about recent happenings in Ghana and assured them that, NDC was well placed to win the upcoming general elections in 2016.

He also informed them that the leadership of NDC in Ghana are working on new guidelines for international chapters and members in USA will be consulted for their inputs in due course of time.

Mr. Attor informed NDC New York branch that some of its members had reached out to his office regarding claims of wrongdoing, which they allege affected the credibility of the New York branch elections held on June 27th, 2015.

Mr. Attor after listening to all sides and allowing members to air their concerns declared that the elections results should stand, declaring that the elections were free and fair. The International Director of NDC advised a handful of the membership who had criticized the process and were threatening to form their own NDC branch to discard such notions, since that was against party regulations.

He said the party will hold them responsible if there are any more problems with unity stemming from this issue in the New York branch. He called on Dr. Lamptey to show good leadership and guide other aggrieved members in working together with the elected executives to unite the NDC New York branch.

He reiterated that NDC Ghana recognized only one branch in the New York area and this was the branch chaired by Mr. Moses Klu Mensah. Mr. Attor said that the claims of irregularities which he had listened and carefully reviewed were not irregularities at all, they were merely unsubstantiated suspicions and there was no credible evidence of any wrongdoing to warrant an annulment of the New York Branch elections.

The meeting was attended by Mr. Ato Essel Mensah, who represented the Chairman of NDC USA, Nii Ashiboi Armah. Mr. Ato Essel who is also an NDC USA Vice Chairman and worked as the Chairperson of NDC USA’s Electoral Committee narrated the ground rules for the elections which had occurred on June 27th in New York.

He stated that the rules for the elections was agreed on in New York at a branch meeting which was attended by the general membership of NDC New York and that this meeting preceded the elections. Mr. Essel stated that the ground rules for the elections were in conformity with party guidelines for organizing elections, additionally the rules had been strictly enforced and complied with by all parties involved in the elections.

Dr. Lamptey who is a former Branch chairman of NDC New York Branch stated that he had problems with the conduct of the elections. His criticisms of the elections were as follows; that Mr. Osborne Sam had not accounted to him- Dr. Lamptey for money Mr. Sam collected from members as they registered for the elections. Dr. Lamptey also claimed that Mr. Osborne Sam was supposed to have bought money orders on a date before June 16th, 2015 and that Mr. Sam had failed to do so and that this rendered the elections null and void.

Mr. Essel in a rebuttal reiterated that both Dr. Lamptey’s need to meet with Mr. Sam and the issue of money orders were not a requirement of the Electoral Committee. According to him both Mr. Sam and Dr. Lamptey had abided by all the ground rules as set forth by NDC USA’s Electoral Committee, they were both required to be present during a phone conference on June 16th, 2015 to report how many people they had both registered to Mr. Essel in his capacity as Chairman of the Electoral Committee and they had both fulfilled this requirement. (The ground rules for the elections required that both Mr. Sam and Dr. Lamptey were to phone Mr. Essel and make available names of members of the branch who had registered and paid their dues and nomination fees to participate in the elections on June 16thand that both had met this requirement.

Mr. Sam expressed surprise at Dr. Lamptey’s claim that there had been any wrongdoingin the conduct of the elections. He explained that Dr. Lamptey called him in the days leading to the deadline and suggested that they meet in order that they could crosscheck each other work. Mr. Sam explained, that he reminded Dr. Lamptey thatnot only was this was not a requirement for the elections, but that the coordinator for the elections was Mr. Essel. He also told Dr. Lamptey that he was unable to meet him given his busy schedule.

He however suggested to Dr. Lamptey that he would go the further step of buying money orders to represent monies he had received and make the available to the Electoral Committee Chairman, as proof that all members had been duly registered. Mr. Sam explained that NDC USA rules were that money collected would be accounted for on the day of the election.

On the day of the elections all members who participated in the elections were duly accounted for by Mr Sam but Dr. Lamptey refused to account for elections money he had collected. He also encouraged members he had registered to boycott the elections.

The NDC USA executives including leading members of the party who were present during the day of the elections told Dr. Lamptey that the elections had to proceed because no regulation had been broken. All members who participated in the New York branch elections were identified by NDC USA executives who supervised the elections from states across the USA.

After patiently listening to all sides of the matter Hon. Attor advised the aggrieved members to abandon their case, he said that he could not find any wrong doing on anyone part which merited an overturning of the elections. Moses Klu Mensah and other executives elected with him were therefore affirmed as the true Executives of NDC New York. He advised all to work with the newly elected executives and help retain power after the 2016 general elections. The newly elected executives will be inaugurated at a ceremony in New York in September 2015, party executives from Ghana and NDC USA will be in attendance.

Signed:

Abdul Ganiyu

Secretary

NDC New York