Cadres congratulate NDC

The Interim Management Committee of the United Cadres’ Front (UCF), has congratulated the National Democratic Congress (NDC) for successfully conducting free and fair presidential and parliamentary primaries for the 2016 general election.

A statement signed by Mr Felix Efanam Nyaku, the General Secretary, UCF, which was copied to the Ghana News Agency on Monday, hailed the party for a successful congress with more than two million of its biometrically registered members going to the polls throughout the country on Saturday November 21, to elect its flagbearer and parliamentary candidates towards the 2016 general election.

It said with the overwhelming endorsement of President John Dramani Mahama as the NDC flagbearer, and also having the people electing their true parliamentary candidates, the road is now set and clear for a healthy competition.

“We are happy that the biometric exercise has greatly achieved what it was meant for, especially expanding the electoral base for majority of party members to have a say in who represent them, and substantially reducing corrupt practices of vote-buying, camping and busing of supporters to polling stations, and also of importance, the usual suppression and manipulation of well-informed views and credible personalities by interested persons and groups within the party,” it said.

It noted that though the exercise was highly successful, the cadres would like the leadership of the party to ensure that lessons from the primaries are well considered for conducting a more vigorous and more purposeful campaign towards 2016.

“That would mean bringing on board all those who competed and lost as well as areas that some kind of confusion nearly brought the elections into disrepute,” it added.

It pointed out that in the midst of such tirade of problems, the leadership of the party at all levels must be commended for rapidly responding to reported cases.

The statement said the security agencies must also be lauded for ensuring that all identified flash-points such as Ashaiman, Obuasi East, Tepa, Amanten, Ejura, and Madina were duly contained.

It said the massive turn-out of voters and their general comportment during the polls were pointers to emulate to bring about peaceful elections during 2016.

“The issue of missing names from the final register needs to be seriously looked into, especially by revisiting the period between the exhibition of the voters’ register and the voting day so as not to disenfranchise registered voters as it was reported in the Sunyani East, Ningo-Prampram, Nkawkaw and other constituencies.

“We would also appeal to the party leadership to help resolve the perennial problem of large numbers of spoilt ballots by teaming up with the National Commission on Civic Education and the Electoral Commission to wage a vigorous public education campaign on how to effectively vote to reduce such figures that can make a difference in closely contested constituencies,” it stated.