As election 2016 draws closer there appears to be some indifference on the part of the leadership of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) towards the polls that would determine their fate.
This indifference is rearing its ugly head at this crucial time when registration is ongoing for voters who have attained the voting age or couldn’t take advantage of previous exercises.
Some agents of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) are not happy with the leadership of the party as the curtain on the registration exercise of the Electoral Commission (EC) draws to an end today barring any extension.
Across the Greater Accra region, The Catalyst is receiving reports of neglect of monitoring agents by the leadership of the party, in sharp contrast to what pertains to agents of the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP).
The agents recount that since the exercise started, leaders of the party have not made any attempts at visiting them to know how they are carrying out their watchdog job of ensuring the exercise goes as expected in preparation for 2016.
Members of Parliament (MPs), aspiring chairmen and other leading party functionaries are said to have all shown no strong interest in the exercise that could determine their fate when the party contests for the general elections.
According to an agent in the Ablekuma North Constituency in the Greater Accra Region, since they started monitoring the exercise, they have not received even water from the leaders of the party, let alone food to keep them going.
The party agent intimated that, only Ras Mubarak, an aspiring MP and Head of the National Youth Council, came to ascertain their situation but has not come back to make good his promise to get them food and some logistics.
One Augustine Akotia, believed to be a chairman-aspirant, is reported to have supplied food and water to some of the agents.
“It was only on Sunday they came to give us some food but it has not come again. That is all we have got since the exercise begun. Not even the MPs and those who are aspiring for various positions in the party and in Parliament have come around,” the aggrieved agent lamented.
He disclosed that the situation is not the same with the NPP who have made it a duty to feed their agents and to keep a close watch on their work in order to come to their rescue if need be. Their MPs, youth organizers and other functionaries are roving around the place every day of the exercise.
The agents are not only surprised but also annoyed that their efforts and sacrifices are not being appreciated by those who would be the biggest beneficiaries of their work.
It would be recalled that the neglect of the agents and the registration exercise recently forced Mr. Johnson Asiedu Nketiah, aka General Mosquito, General Secretary of the NDC, to suspend campaign for internal elections to enable the party to adequately monitor the nationwide voters’ registration exercise.
According to some of the agents, General Mosquito’s action, though commendable, came a bit late after they had already gone through the difficulty of monitoring the process without logistics or even words of encouragement.
At the time the registration process was on, aspiring national leaders of the NDC were busily campaigning while party agents were focusing on the exercise.
Members of the NPP, including their flagbearer-aspirants, truncated their campaign to offer support to their agents.
Nana Akufo-Addo, a New Patriotic Party flagbearer-aspirant was accompanied by Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, his running mate in the 2008 and 2012 elections; John Peter Amewu, Volta Regional NPP Chairman; Nii Adjiri Blankson, former Mayor of Accra; Elizabeth Ohene, former Minister of Education; regional NPP executives, and some constituency chairmen of the party to visit their agents in the Greater Accra, Central and Volta Regions of the country.