Bantama, Subin To Miss Delegates Congress?

Information gathered by Chronicle on Saturday indicates that delegates of the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) from the Bantama and Subin constituencies in the Ashanti Region will not have the privilege to participate in the upcoming August 7 congress to elect the flagbearer for the Party.

This follows series of legal encumbrances that have bedeviled the constituencies in the run-up to the polling station and constituency congresses last year, leading to nullification of elections held in those two constituencies.

Some aggrieved party functionaries in the embattled constituencies have since last year been pursuing separate legal battles in court, over their exclusion from the electoral processes which ushered new polling and constituency executives into office.

The court, in both cases, have nullified the elections in the constituencies which consequentially means that delegates from the two constituencies cannot take part in the congress until all outstanding issues are cleared. Injunctions have been placed on polling station and constituency executives who were elected during the constituency congress from holding themselves as such.

The Ashanti Regional Secretary of the party, Mr. Samuel Pyne, has meanwhile corroborated Chronicle on Saturday’s information, but said in an interview that the party was working around the clock to get the matter amicably settled so that delegates from the constituencies could get the opportunity to exercise their franchise.

He said regional executives of the party had held a meeting with the aggrieved parties and expressed the optimism that all grievances would be settled before August 7. According to him, the court ruled in both cases that the matter should be amicably handled since they were internal party affairs should not be battled in court.

The Bantama and Subin constituencies are known to be two most popular constituencies in the Kumasi Metropolis, contributing many votes to the electoral fortunes of the opposition party.