NDC vets President Mills

Accra, June 8, GNA - The six-member National Democratic Congress (ND= C) Vetting Committee has begun vetting President John Evans Atta Mills, who ha= s filed his papers to contest for the party's flag bearer slot for the 2012 presidential election.

The President, who is one of the two candidates that filed their paper= s to contest for the slot, arrived at the NDC Headquarters in Accra at 1045 hours. Former First Lady, Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings, the second candidate, underwent the vetting on Tuesday. The vetting is the penultimate step on the Party's timetable before its National Delegates' Congress slated for Sunyani from July 8-10 to elect t= he flag bearer. According to the party's roadmap for the National Delegates' Congr= ess, the final step is the release of the list of delegates on June 10. The vetting committee chaired by Alhaji Issifu Ali, former co-Chairman of the NDC, will examine the documents filed by the aspirants and examine their qualifications under the party's constitution. Other members of the Vetting Committee are Mr Lionel Mobila, former Upper East Regional Minister, Dr (Mrs) Mary Grant, a member of the erstwhil= e Provisional National Defence Council, Mr Cletus Avoka, Majority Leader, and Mr Chris Ackumey and Mr Larry Adjetey, both lawyers.

Under the rules of the NDC, each contestant shall be proposed by two persons and seconded by four persons who must be members of the executive a= t the branch, constituency, regional or national levels. A duly proposed contestant shall be endorsed by two members of the executive at any level of the party from each of the 230 constituencies of the country. On the qualification of flag bearer aspirants the candidate must fulfi= l the qualification requirements as stated in Article 62 of the 1992 Constitution which deal with the qualifications to be president of Ghana. In addition, the aspirant must be a member of a branch of the party; b= e a known and active member of the body for not less than four years; shall not be a member of any other political party; and must accept the constitution, philosophy and policies of the NDC.

Others are that the aspirant must be an active and card bearing member of the party with fully paid up membership dues; must not be facing any disciplinary action for breach of the party's Disciplinary Code and constitution; and must not be a member of the executive committee at any level of the party at the time of picking of nomination form. There will be about 3,000 delegates at the Sunyani Congress. The delegates would include the Founder of the party, Leader of the party and President of Ghana, Vice President, National Executive Committee Members, Ministers of State, Selected Regional Executives, Committee Member= s and Parliamentarians. The rest are Municipal, Metropolitan and District Chief Executives who are members of the party, foreign branch representatives, Council of Elders and representatives from the Tertiary Education Institution Network.