NDC Congress: We’ll go by constitution – Nketia

General Secretary of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) has said that the party will not embark on any action not backed by its constitution, adding that the programme of the party when in opposition has been clearly outlined in its laws.

He was reacting to suggestions by some party members that an early congress was in the interest of the NDC because it will afford it more time to prepare and galvanise the party’s support base for the 2020 elections.

“A party that has suffered this level of defeat with so much internal acrimony and internal pain still in the mind, if we could not take eight years to galvanise that into an electoral victory, I don’t see how we can do that within one year or one-and-a-half years”, former Member of Parliament for Nandom, Dr Benjamin Kunbuor argued some time ago when he spoke to Class FM.

“Given all the preparations that are involved, it will mean that by the time you are getting to elect your flag bearer, you will be in 2019.”

But Mr Nketia, in an interview with Moro Awudu on Class FM’s Executive Breakfast Show on Wednesday, May 3, disagreed.

“There is no such waiver that talks about the timing of our congresses and so on; it is written in black and white in the party constitution,” he said.

He said there is a clause which indicates that “should any situation arise which has not been anticipated by the framers of the [party] constitution for which reason no provision exists to handle such special situation then this and this and this are the means of solving that situation”, wondering: “Which is the special situation [here]?

“Losing elections, is it a special situation that the party does not provide for in the constitution? And the answer is no! Being in opposition, is that a special situation that the party’s constitution has not provided for? The answer is no! The party tells you that when you are in government you do A, B, C, and when you are in opposition you do X,Y,Z, so which is the special situation that he (Dr Kunbuor) is referring to?”

He emphasised that “if the framers of the constitution do not think that party elections can be held within that time frame I’m not sure they will provide that it must be held within that time frame”.

Article 44 (a) of the NDC constitution states:

The date and venue of the election of the presidential candidate shall be decided by the National Executive Committee provided that such an election shall take place at least 12 months before a national election date in the case where the party is in power and at least 24 months in the case where the party is outside government.