Zanetor’s ID issue escaped vetting panel – NDC

The Klottey Korle constituency chairman of the governing National Democratic Congress (NDC), Alhaji Bashiru Nii Narh Alema, has revealed that the committee that vetted Dr Zanetor Agyeman-Rawlings prior to her election as the party’s parliamentary candidate failed to ask her if she had a voter’s ID card.

Dr Agyeman-Rawlings, first daughter of NDC founder and former President Jerry John Rawlings, defeated incumbent MP Nii Armah Ashitey in November 2015’s primary to win the slot to contest for the ruling party, but has had her victory challenged in court by her rival.

The parliamentary hopeful, it has been confirmed by the Electoral Commission (EC), is not a registered voter, and Mr Ashitey has, thus, asked the trial court to nullify the victory of Dr Agyeman-Rawlings.

But answering a question from Chief Jerry Forson on Accra100.5FM’s Ghana Yensom on Monday April 11, 2016, over why the vetting panel had failed to conduct due diligence to ascertain whether she was a registered voter, Alhaji Alema said: “Seriously and honestly, at the time [of vetting], on that day it did not come to mind that we would ask her for her voter ID; we only asked for her party ID.

“It did not come to mind, not that we forgot it. It didn’t come to mind.”

According to him, the panel omitted to enquire of her status as a voter at Klottey Korle because of a number of guidelines NDC General Secretary Johnson Asiedu Nketia had directed them to strictly adhere to in the vetting of parliamentary aspirants in 2015. The guidelines did not instruct us to ask about her voter , so, that did not come to mind.

Alhaji Alema has, however, asked Mr Ashitey to withdraw the case from court for amicable settlement by the party, as he deems the NDC is losing ground in the constituency given that candidates of other parties in the area – Philip Addison of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and Eva Lokko of the Progressive People’s Party (PPP) – were already campaigning actively for votes.