NDC suspends elections in 25 constituencies

The National Democratic Congress (NDC) has suspended at least 25 constituencies nationwide from partaking in its constituency elections slated for the weekend. According to the opposition party, the decision was taken due to disputes over their alleged omission from the electoral register. The main opposition party would hold its internal elections on Saturday, October 22 and Sunday, October 23, 2022, to elect to be its executives at the constituency level. However, the expected exercise has been greeted with some sort of differences among delegates and the executives in some constituencies over registrar problems. Fast forward, some irate youths at Suame in the Ashanti Region on Thursday, October 20, vandalised the party office whiles expressing their displeasure for the alleged omission of their names from the album. Although calm has been restored in the area awaiting the election, they have threatened to further bear teeth to their leaders if they fail to find solutions to their concerns. In ensuring the exercise goes on smoothly, the National Elections Committee of the NDC announced the decision to put the elections in ‘these tension-constituencies’ on hold. The pronouncement was made in a statement issued by the party’s Deputy Director of Elections, Daniel Amartey Mensah, Friday, October 21, 2022. The suspended constituencies have 12 out of the 25 from the Eastern Region whiles the Greater Accra Region have seven. Other regions including the Central, Volta and Western Regions also have two of their constituencies each suspended. Meanwhile, the Upper East Region also had one suspended. The statement said “the National Elections Committee under the guidance of FEC [Functional Executive Committee], has decided to put elections in a few constituencies on hold due to disputes over delegates list for those constituencies and/or the exclusion from ballot papers of candidates who have been qualified through the appeal process. “The party has also directed all constituencies to include candidates who have been duly cleared to contest through the appeal process on their ballot papers and exclude candidates who have been disqualified through the appeals process from the ballot papers,” it added. The Functional Executive Committee thus charged the party executives at the suspended constituencies to comply with the order because “failure to strictly adhere to this directive will render any election illegal, hence a nullity and appropriate sanctions will be applied to any person found culpable.” “Further to FEC’s earlier directive for all constituency elections in respect of all 17 elective positions to be held in one day, all Election Committees, candidates and stakeholders should note that the counting of ballots and declaration of results in respect of Youth wing and Women's Wing elections are to be put on hold until after the conclusion of voting in respect of the constituency election conference,” the statement contains. The statement further advised all members, delegates, candidates, officials and the Election Committee to strictly abide by the guidelines for the “smooth conduct of the polls in a free, fair, transparent and peaceful manner.”