Accra Oct. 24, GNA - The Functional Executive Committee (FEC) of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) on Sunday expressed disappointment about a statement issued by the Central Regional Executives of the Party in a statement, signed by Mr P.L Koomson. In press statements, FEC said disparaging remarks were made against members of FEC and in particular Mr E. T Mensah, which was considered unacceptable by the Party.
A statement issued and signed by Mr. Bede Ziedeng, Deputy General Secretary of the Party said: "We do not intend to wash our dirty linen in public, and so this statement is only meant to set the records straight in order for our teeming supporters to know the truth and be their own judges".
Explaining the issue, the statement said, Mr Koomson had consistently failed to submit reports to the National Vetting Committee and in the case of Awutu-Senya Constituency, Mr Ziedeng had directed Mr. Koomson to submit a report for the consideration of the FEC because they were very concerned about developments in the area.
In complete disregard to the directive, the Central Regional Secretariat went ahead to supervise the conduct of a constituency conference for the election of a parliamentary candidate without the endorsement of the FEC.
Alhaji Baba Lamin won the contest against Mr Moses Acquah; FEC promptly annulled the results of the contest. A committee was set up to oversee the organization of primaries in the constituency.
Based on that, nominations were opened for a period of one week but Alhaji Lamin refused to file his nomination and at the close of nomination only Mr Acquah had duly filed and should have been returned unopposed, however, some interventions were made on behalf of Alhaji Lamin at the next FEC meeting, for an opening to be made for him to contest.
Alhaji Lamin wrote to the National Office protesting against the delegates list on the grounds that the branch delegates comprised only branch chairmen and secretaries.
His protest was found to be unmeritorious and was accordingly dismissed.
There were reported incidents of intimidation and violence at the grounds; it therefore became practically impossible for any contest to be organized. Guided by previous experiences, the FEC realized that it was not feasible to organize a contest.
The FEC decided that Mr Moses Acquah was the only candidate, who had duly filed nomination and should be allowed to run as the NDC Parliamentary Candidate for Awutu-Senya.
The statement said the FEC was satisfied with the decision it had taken and was confident that the NDC would win the Awutu-Senya seat with Mr Moses Acquah as its parliamentary candidate.
