NDC, EGLE Clash Over Cape Coast Seat

By J. W. Dadson - Cape Coast

Accra - Tension is brewing between the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and Egle Party over the selection of a candidate to contest the Cape Coast parliamentary seat in the forthcoming general elections.

The Egle Party, the junior partner in the alliance, has accused the NDC of imposing its candidate on the Progressive alliance in violation of a decision taken by the national executives of the alliance at a meeting in Accra to allow the Egle Party and the DPP to select candidates to contest all the seats lost to their partner, the NDC, in the 1996 general elections.

A dependable source from the Egle Party told the Chronicle that some time last year, the NDC held a constituency conference at the Cape Coast Town Hall to select a parliamentary candidate, at w3hich the executives of the Egle Party were invited as observers.

According to the source, the executives of the Egle Party accused the executives of the NDC of not involving them as partners of the alliance in the selection of a suitable and marketable candidate for the Cape Coast seat. Following this, it was then agreed that the Egle Party could also hold its conference to select a candidate of its choice so that at a later date, the two parties would meet to decide on the two candidates.

The source, however, said the NDC had side-stepped the decision is currently imposing its candidate on the alliance.

The Chronicle further gathered that the Electoral Commission (EC) had earlier warned that if the Egle Party and the DPP this time round failed to put up candidates for the forth coming general elections, their registrations would be withdrawn, but the NDC with its incumbency does not care a hoot about this caution.

A survey conducted by the Chronicle at the grassroots indicated that the youth and a majority of market traders in Cape Coast are in favour of Mr.

Sam Pee Yalley, one time District Chief Executive for the CCMA and former Deputy Secretary of Social Welfare, Science and Technology in the PNDC era who is an Egle Party member as a more marketable candidate than the present NDC candidate, Mr. Barton Ebo Odro, a Cape Coast barrister, who is new on the political scene. In spite of this the leadership of the NDC in the constituency is poised to impose him on the people because of the financial and other resources at its disposal one activist said.

He pointed out that even if the NDC candidate is to be marketed, resources and logistics available should evenly be shared among members of the Progressive Alliance to enable them to give their maximum support to whoever is sleeted to serve the interest of the people of the constituency.

According to the activist, the Egle Party has been so neglected in the Progressive Alliance that it has no vehicle to operate the Central Region for 10 years now as compared to the other affiliated organisations such as the 31st December Women Movement, Verandah Boys/Girls and the Progressive Voluntary Organisations (PVOs) which have vehicles to operate.

Another observed that Cape Coast being the home town of the Vice President, Prof. J. E. A. Mills, who has been proposed as a presidential candidate for the alliance members should be encouraged to put in their maximum efforts to ensure a total victory in the presidential as well as the parliamentary elections.

Citing an instance, a source recalled that the same problems were experienced in the 1996 general elections when a few executives of the NDC arrogated to themselves the power to do everything with all the resources available with the slogan "yeewie biribiara" literally meaning "we have finished everything" only to lose the Cape Coast parliamentary seat to the Opposition, pointing out that even at that time, Mr. Vallis Akyianu, the NDC candidate was marketable.

The source further accused the NDC constituency executives of not telling the truth about issues in the Cape Coast constituency, stressing that as mot of them are contractors, they keep telling lies to cover-up their misdeeds in order to win contracts for the benefits of themselves and their families.

Some concerned members of the NDC the Chronicle talked to expressed their concern about some constituency executives who are bent on tearing the Progressive Alliance apart and feared that if the leadership failed to address issues in the constituencies, harm could be done to the party in the forthcoming elections.

Following the controversy in the Cape Coast constituency, telephones calls have been coming in from Accra almost every hour, apparently to find out developments about the issues.