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General News of Thursday, 15 December 2016

Source: thechronicle.com.gh

Takoradi NDC in turmoil after massive defeat

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Confusion has engulfed the Takoradi branch of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), barely a week after suffering a humiliating defeat.

Available information indicates that the defeated parliamentary candidate, Alfred Ekow Gyan, who is also the Deputy Regional Minister called a meeting to discuss the root cause of the heavy defeat suffered by the party in the constituency.

The party had set a 30,000 votes target for both the presidential and parliamentary elections, but they could only garner a paltry 11,264 votes, which is not even up to half of the figure they had targeted.

Saddened by the development, the Deputy Regional Minister summoned a meeting at Howard Primary School to discuss the loss and develop a strategy to salvage the party in the constituency from collapsing.

The Constituency chairman of the party, Illiasu Alhassan, who was not consulted before the meeting was scheduled, The Chronicle was told, used his constitutional powers to cancel it.

Chairman Illiasu Alhassan confirmed in an interview with The Chronicle that he took the decision to suspend the meeting because he is the only person who has been clothed with powers to call meetings to discuss party matters.

The Chronicle source within the top echelon of the party revealed that some of the constituency executives and the parliamentary candidate were not on good terms.

According to the source, they were expecting the top hierarchy to resolve the impasse but nothing of that sort happened before the elections.

It is being alleged that because Alfred Ekow Gyan, popularly known as ‘Abott’ and his chairman were not on good terms, divisions emerged within the ranks of the executives.

‘Chairman One’, as Illiasu Alhassan is called, confirmed the rift and alleged that ‘Abott’ arrogated to himself every position in the party.

“He was the PC, the constituency Chairman and the Secretary,” he said. This led to wrangling in the party.

“Abott was virtually controlling everything in the party in his house. He was holding meetings in his house and if you are not in his camp, he sees you as an enemy”, the party chairman told The Chronicle.