The NDC USA Chapter wishes to respond and set the record straight in the above captioned article published by Ghanaweb on July 22nd, 2013 which seeks to impugn impropriety concerning the conduct of the elections of NDC USA Chapter Executives which occurred July 13th 2013.
This dubious and unsubstantiated article copiously refers to an article which is stated to have been published by NDC Atlanta. The said article by a member branch of NDC USA under the chairmanship of Dr. Bismarck Sarfo, who was personally absent at the congress but was formally and fully represented by his delegates at the congress has helped set this erroneous bait and our political opponent in their amateurism, are basing their unsubstantiated article on it. The NDC USA wishes to publicly state the following, that all NDC USA bylaws were scrumptiously followed before and during the just ended Congress. The elections were supervised (that is the tallying of votes) by Hon. Gershon Gbediame, Member of Parliament for Nkwanta South District in the Volta Region of Ghana. All candidates (members who stood for positions) were represented by an agent of their choice during the counting and tallying of votes.
The elections were conducted by a committee that was independent of the NDC USA Executive Committee in accordance to the NDC USA bylaws. The concerns that were raised before and during the Congress by some within the party are the following; the date and venue of the Congress, the leadership of the Chairman-Prof. K. Agyenim Boateng, and the branches which have joined or been added to the organization’s roll since June 2010 following the last NDC USA Congress.
These issues were all discussed and decisions democratically reached before the Congress in Worcester, Massachusetts.
Concerning the issue of the date and venue; - the NDC USA during a phone conference meeting with representatives from all member branches asked any member branch which wished to host the Congress to submit a written request to do so to the secretary of NDC USA. The deadline for organizing the event was the end of July 2013. NDC Massachusetts was the only branch which sent a written request to host the event. The host branch indicated to the NDC USA Executive Committee that the most suitable date for the event given availability of venues was July 13th, 2013. This was also approved by the NDC USA Executive Committee as required by the NDC USA bylaws. All NDC USA member branches were able to send representatives to the 2013 Congress. Concerning the issue of the leadership of Prof. K. Agyenim Boateng; - criticism of Prof. Agyenim Boating’s leadership has had one main crux, which is that he left the Chapter to stay in Ghana. During the tenure of the Mr. Kobby Boahene, (NDC USA former Chairman), some members of the party criticized his stay in Ghana and wanted him removed because they felt that he was not fulfilling his responsibilities as a result of his stay in Ghana. A conference of branches at the time (May 2010) in Ohio, which gave birth to the Ohio branch, decided that if NDC USA Chapter Chairman stayed in Ghana for more than six months the NDC USA reserved the right to remove the Chairman. The outgoing NDC USA Executive Committee during a Special Meeting in 2012 revised this decision – stating that the Chairman could be removed if his absence in the USA was without the approval and knowledge of the NDC USA Executive Committee. The reasoning of the Executive Committee was informed by two main factors –firstly, the earlier decision which called for removal of the Chairman did not take into consideration the fact that the executive’s absence may be solely or partially due to a request of the organization. (In which case the organization would be punishing a member for doing what he has been asked to do). Additionally, the Executive Committee which has the authority to change the rules of the organization also had to contend with the difficulty of ascertaining when an individual was in the USA or out of the country. (An NDC USA executive or member may be removed from an elected position through a decision of the Executive committee).
Administratively, where an executive of the organization spent his time was not the main issue it was whether the individually effectively dealt with his responsibilities which mattered. The NDC USA executives in the case of Prof. Kwame Agyenim Boateng felt strongly, that punishing Prof. Agyenim Boateng, when his only alleged wrong doing was that, he had permission and support of the Executive Committee and the organization as a whole, to go to Ghana and contest for a parliamentary position and to also support the party during the elections. It’s the general agreement of the majority of the executive committee members, that there were not sufficient and justifiable grounds to remove him. Additionally, during this period in question, Prof. Agyenim Boateng did not abandon his position as Chairman of NDC USA; he chaired every conference called by the organization. In a few cases when he was unable to chair such events he asked the officer next in line to do so. It is important to point out that, NDC USA has five (5) Vice-chairmen. (As a result, out of about thirty conferences which were organized during the tenure of Prof. Agyenim-Boateng’s leadership he was absent in only three, he was available at every meeting where he was physically required to be available except during the funeral events of the late Prof. Mills where he represented the organization during the funeral ceremony in Ghana). The fact still remains that the NDC USA did not remove its outgoing Chairman because there was no need to. Additionally, Prof. Boateng, even chaired the NDC USA recently ended Congress in Massachusetts
Concerning the issue of branches, which have joined the NDC USA Chapter since its last Congress in 2011, and the claim by some members that allowing these branches to participate fully during the Congress of 2013 amounts to rigging the elections is totally false and misplaced, and the following is the NDC USA response;-
1. The NDC USA is an organization which is open to all Ghanaians living in the USA who self-identify with the ideals and policies of National Democratic Congress of Ghana. As a result, the NDC USA welcomes all NDC supporters in the USA who want to organize and be members of the chapter. It has always been a practice to see new branches unfolding near our national congress with such a high level of enthusiasm. A case in point is, Florida, Virginia, Pennsylvania and many others that became branches officially during our congress in Washington 4years ago. Similarly, some members objected to their participation then, but the congress thought it wise to include them and nurture these groups to grow to become a viable branches. Now some of these same groups are seen opposing others from joining the rank and file.
2. The NDC USA bylaws forbids the organization from discrimination among its membership, in other words, once the NDC USA Executive Committee accepts a branch as a member, all the privileges and courtesies are extended to them.
3. All branches which participated during the 2013 Congress were approved by the NDC USA Executive Committee as members and all candidates for the elections were fully made aware in June 2013 when all other announcements concerning the congress were made about which branches that would be participating in the 2013 Congress.
4. One candidate and some member branch representatives protested the participation of some branches during the Congress of 2013; the matter was adjudicated by the Hon. Kofi Attor. Because the claim was that the branches mentioned may be fictitious – Hon. Kofi Attor asked the NDC USA Executive Committee to verify that these branches did not exist only on paper or on the minds of few but were branches which met all the requirements of the a branch.
The requirements of a branch were declared as following that, new branches must have at least fifteen members, each branch is required to have at least five executive committee members, a branch must meet regularly and keep records of meeting. Every branch is required to collect monthly dues from members and pay part of these dues to NDC USA. In the case of new branches they are required to pay a registration fee to NDC USA, as part of their requirement to become branches.
5. Hon. Attor clearly stated that verification of the branches was the responsibility of the NDC USA Executive Committee. The NDC USA Executive Committee therefore verified and reapproved of all the member branches which took part in the NDC USA Congress of 2013. The agreed modus operandi for verification was that branches concerned will give the NDC USA Executive committee phone numbers of fifteen members; they were also required to allow NDC USA Executives inspects their records or sit in one branch executive committee meeting. Any NDC USA Executive Committee member could ask to re-verify a branch he or she had doubts about. All these procedures were followed before the 2013 Congress and there was not any protest against the method employed to verify the branches.
6. Concerning propriety of allowing so-called new branches to vote; the reasoning is that it is fairer than allowing only fewer so-called older branches to vote. For example, some of these older branches were not in good standing and the same people who were chairmen 4years ago are still chairing without holding branch elections, even though their term of office then, is only 2 years. Some were absent from last two conferences/congresses.
7. In a representative democracy, fewer people are elected to represent the majority and the minority. The electorate must therefore be those qualified to vote at the time of the elections not those who were previously qualified to vote as per the 2011 roll. NDC USA can say that none were prevented from taking part in the elections. That all member branches on our roll voted. Candidates who complain must realize that, crying foul after losing an election in which they fully participated and campaigned for positions is not a sign of good democratic tendencies. They are being elected to be leaders of all the branches and not a select few..
8. Just as the NPP is crying foul in Ghana, they were able to inject themselves into an internal wrangling by few disgruntled and ill guided elements of our national chapter. NDC USA also wishes to state that there was no attempt at intimidating anyone at the Congress. The claim can only be believed by naïve persons. This was an event that was witnessed by important party dignitaries as guest speakers. Inevitably, why would these dignitaries allow anyone to be intimidated by others. Regarding the police presence at the Congress venue, it is significant to note that no police officer entered the room in which the event was held. A participant at the event started shouting and heckling another speaker although the speaker had clearly been given the approval to speak; this behavior was determined by Prof. Agyenim Boateng to be disorderly and if left unchecked had the potential of disrupting the event. The Campus Security was invited to be of assistance in case the heckler, whose state of mind was difficult to determine became even more aggressive in his conduct. The Security officers did not need to walk any one out and left a few minutes after they were sure all was peaceful.
In the aftermath of the2013 NDC USA Congress, some individuals using pseudonyms have used certain websites to denigrate the character and names of certain persons who are very instrumental in the leadership of NDC USA. The NDC USA wishes to state that, the so called article attributed to some branches which has woken up the elephant from its slumber is unfounded, concocted and fell short of meaning and defies logic. If it is true that the source of this entire article is genuine and truthful, names will be signed under them before being published.
Finally, it is our conviction that, our adversaries are using certain people within our chapter to cause trouble and confusion. It is not in our DNA as members of the great NDC to lower ourselves in our public discourse to negatively damage our unity, in their quest to harm the hard won reputation of their own compatriots. We therefore condemn all this efforts and warn that, any further lies and unfounded allegations will get the appropriate response within the limits of the law. We will continue to prevent this character assassination attempts by misguided elements.
Charles Kpodzo
Secretary-NDC USA Signed
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