Kwabena Mintah Akandoh, MP, Juabosu Constituency
The opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) in the Juabosu Constituency in the Western North Region risk losing its Parliamentary seat in the 2020 general elections, should the party fail to put matters in order.
This is because hundreds of party supporters believe their choice of Parliamentary candidate has been “deliberately” disqualified to make way for the incumbent MP, Kwabena Mintah Akandoh, who is also Ranking Member on Parliament’s Select Committee on Health, to stand unopposed in the NDC’s upcoming parliamentary primaries.
The primaries to elect Parliamentary candidates to represent the NDC in the 2020 polls comes off on 24, August, 2019.
However, Myxyzonline.com is reliably informed supporters of one Raphael Parku, a party financier in the area and a Branch Chairman at Juabosu D/C primary ‘B’, are up in arms to stall the election process because they believe their choice of aspirant was not treated fairly during the vetting of the aspirants.
Mr. Parku was reportedly disqualified from contesting the primaries after two branch executives at Agyemadiem and Sayereso who had endorsed his forms came to the vetting centre and claimed their signatures were forged to endorse him. They eventually asked the Vetting Committee to disqualify Parku amidst protests.
But a source close to Mr. Parku has debunked the allegations raised by the two executives.
Accusing their MP, Mr Akandoh, for masterminding the confusion, the source said even before the matter could be resolved, Parku should have been given the chance to rectify the anomaly.
“The vetting guildline stipulates that a candidate who has been proposed, seconded or endorsed by a person who has done the same for another candidate for the position, shall be allowed to correct same within 24 hours,” the source said.
The aggrieved supporters who say their MP has “outlived his usefulness” are threatening to vote against Akandoh in 2020 if he is voted for during the primaries.
“The decision of the Vetting Committee was too harsh because Raphael should have been given a chance to correct the minor error,” another source at the party office added.
The supporters of Raphael Parku have therefore vowed to vote out Akandoh if the party fails to clear their candidate to contest in the impending elections.
We will resist any orchestration by the party big wigs at the region and the national level to make Akando go unopposed, the leader of the group said.
Mr. Raphael Parku is expected to appear before the party’s Appeal Committee on Wednesday, August 7,2019 to seek redress.
Meanwhile, all efforts to get Mr. Parku or the party executives at Juabosu to comment on the matter have proven futile.
