By Margaret Jackson

January 28, 2013

A lot of noise was generated from certain quarters following the disqualification of Kofi Adams, the suspended deputy General Secretary of the NDC, from contesting the vacant Buem Constituency seat. The by-election became necessary following the sudden death of the Member of Parliament for Buem, Mr. Ford Henry Kamel, who also doubled as the Volta Regional Minister on December 25, 2012 at the Jasikan District Hospital.

Days after the demise of Mr. Kamel, a certain group of people from the Volta Region started making a pitch for Kofi Adams, who comes from the area to contest the empty seat. It did not however, take long that the whole issue went into the head of Kofi Adams who started making rounds on Radio stations and expressed his interest in the vacant Buem parliamentary seat.

It was therefore not surprising when Kofi Adams finally picked a form to contest the primary on the ticket of the NDC. And by the NDC constitution, all parliamentary candidates are required to be vetted before contesting for the primary.

But because Kofi Adams had a pending suspension case with the NDC it did not surprise many political pundits when he was disqualified by the National Executives of the NDC on Tuesday January 22, 2013.

Mr. Adams was disqualified from contesting the impending by-election on the ticket of the NDC because he is on suspension. The National Executive Committee of the NDC suspended Kofi Adams last year following a leaked tape which featured a voice alleged to be his promising to do everything possible to prevent the late Professor Mills from securing a second term in office.

When Kofi Adams, who is the spokesman of former President Rawlings, was disqualified, a member of the NDC secured a court injunction restraining the party from holding the Buem primaries. But the primaries eventually came off.

Credible information on hand has it that Kofi Adams who attempted to contest the Buem primary and possibly the parliamentary seat is not on the Buem register. The simple truth is that Kofi Adams cannot vote in the Buem Constituency because he has not transferred his vote to that constituency.

Information that I pumped into was that Kofi Adams who may have forgotten that per the Electoral Commission (EC) law one cannot transfer his/her vote during by-elections sent emissaries to the EC on Friday January 18, 2013 to see whether he could transfer his vote to the Buem Constituency.

When emissaries of Kofi Adams went to the EC they desperately sought help to transfer his vote to Buem only for them to be told that it cannot be done because the law does not allow transfers to be done during by-elections.

One would have thought that when Kofi Adams was subsequently disqualified by the NDC he would have been grateful and gone quietly, but he has been lambasting the General Secretary of the NDC, Mr. Asiedu Nketia of masterminding his disqualification without any proof.

Imagine what would have happened if due diligence had not been done by the NDC and Kofi Adams had sneaked in and possibly win the primary only for it to emerge that he is not on the Buem register? Can you just imagine the huge embarrassment Kofi Adams would have caused the NDC? Kofi Adams should stop blaming others and tell the whole truth to Ghanaians. I am waiting for Kofi Adams to come out and deny this story that he is indeed on the Buem register and that he did not send emissaries to the EC to seek help on transferring his vote when he knows that he cannot do so under EC law during by-elections.

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