The opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) has said it will not postpone its presidential and parliamentary primaries slated for Saturday (13 May).
The NDC flagbearer hopeful, Dr Kwabena Duffuor, has filed an application at the high court seeking an order to injunct the primaries scheduled for Saturday 13 May 2023, alleging electoral irregularities.
The case is expected to be heard in court on Friday (12 May).
However, speaking to the sit-in host of the Asaase Breakfast Show on Friday (12 May), the deputy general secretary of the NDC, Mustapha Gbande said ” We have written to all our delegates to prepare for the election, we will not postpone the election.”
“When we get to the issues of the Electoral Commission, I believe we will cross, strategically it is important we choose our battles carefully by addressing one issue before the other,” he added.
Gbande added, “But I can assure you that all that is required for the election to take place has been put in place, unless of course Dr Kwabena Duffour will give our enemies the opportunity to use his application to the court to frustrate the process, and if that occurs, I am sure he will take the blame.”
Listen to Mustapha Gbande in the attached audio clip below:
Boycott
The Electoral Commission (EC) has served notice that it will boycott Saturday’s presidential and parliamentary primaries of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) until all legal issues surrounding the exercise are resolved.
Duffuor had earlier petitioned the electoral body to intervene in the situation having also provided some evidence to back his claim that there were anomalies in the party’s register. The EC, accordingly, proceeded to invite the parties to a meeting on Wednesday.
At the meeting, the EC boss Jean Mensa said the election management body will stay off the internal polls in order not to be cited for contempt.
“In order that we are not cited for contempt, the commission has taken the decision not to supervise the conduct of the presidential and parliamentary elections until after the determination of the case by the court,” Mensa informed the parties at the meeting.
“We thought we should bring this to your attention,” she added calling off the meeting to resolve the issue.
The meeting was attended by NDC stalwarts including national chairman Johnson Asiedu Nketiah and a former deputy general secretary Peter Boamah Otukonor.
The writ
According to the writ of summons filed at the General Jurisdiction Court on Tuesday (9 May 2023), Dr Kwabena Duffuor is the plaintiff and there are five defendants. They are the NDC’s general secretary (1st defendant), the NDC’s director of elections (2nd defendant), former president John Dramani Mahama (3rd defendant), former KMA mayor, Kojo Bonsu (4th defendant) and the Electoral Commission of Ghana (5th defendant).
Reliefs sought
Essentially, Dr Kwabena Duffuor is seeking three reliefs in his application. First, he is asking the court for a “declaration that the Photo Album Register issued by the 1st defendant and 2nd defendants to the Plaintiff on 4 May 2023 as the primary document for conducting the internal Presidential election of the National Democratic Congress on the 13 of May, 2023 is incomplete and inaccurate.”
Secondly, he is praying the court for “an order directing the 1st and 2nd defendants to prepare and deliver a complete and accurate Photo Album Register to the Plaintiff and other presidential aspirants of the National Democratic Congress at least five weeks ahead of the elections to enable the aspirants carry out the needed verification of the Photo Album Register.”
Lastly, Dr Duffuor is seeking “an injunction restraining the 1st, 2nd and 5th defendants from conducting the internal presidential elections of the National Democratic Congress on 13 May 2023 pending compliance with second reliefs [as stated above].”
Duffuor’s contention
It is Dr Duffuor’s contention that the Photo Album Register put out by the NDC’s director of elections with the knowledge, consent and tacit approval of the party’s general secretary, would compromise the integrity of the elections, erode public trust in the elections and lead to disputes over the election results.
Dr Duffuor in his statement of claim as filed in court “avers that the partial delivery of the Photo Album Register to his representatives on 4th May, 2023 was in itself out of time considering the magnitude of the verification exercise required of them before the internal elections on 13 May 2023.”
The plaintiff, Dr Duffuor states again that “to their (Duffuor team) utmost surprise, upon verification, it was found that the number of constituencies on the hard drive given to his representatives was 220 in number as opposed to the alleged number of 228 constituencies indicated by the defendant.”
He adds that “an initial verification of the said 220 constituencies on the hard drive given to his representatives by the 2nd defendant established basic errors and inaccuracies that render the Photo Album Register inaccurate and unreliable for a free, fair and credible elections.”
Furthermore, Dr Duffuor asserts “that records of some of the delegates have been duplicated and given different names and different Party identification numbers, a sizeable number of the eligible voters have no photographs exhibited on the Photo Album Register making it impossible to conduct any meaningful verification exercise on these persons.”
The plaintiff adds that of the 220 constituencies, an exceptional list of 74,799 people has been created to take part in the elections which said exceptional list cannot be verified because of the scanty information provided about them in the Photo Album Register.
Following these discoveries, Dr Duffuor indicates that he caused “a petition to be lodged with the 5th defendant (EC) for the 5th defendant’s intervention for a comprehensive and accurate register to be compiled by the 1st and 2nd defendants and prevent fraudulent activities such as multiple voting, impersonation and disenfranchising of eligible and qualified voters.”
The plaintiff, Dr Duffuor therefore “maintains that the 1st and 2nd defendants reluctance to extend the time for the internal elections and provide a complete and credible Photo Album Register ahead of time to the Presidential aspirants for verification, smacks of a plan to create undue advantage for manipulation of the presidential primaries”.
Reporting by Fred Dzakpata in Accra
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