NDC elects executives in new regions today
The opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) will today, Saturday, May 25, hold elections to elect new executives in three existing regions and five newly created regions.
In all, the party ought to have held the elections in four existing and the six newly created regions but the elections for the Volta and Oti regions had been rescheduled for June 16, 2019.
In view of that, the elections will be held in the Northern, Western and the Bono regions for the existing regions and the Ahafo, Bono East, North East, Savannah, and Western North for the newly created regions.
Additional guidelines
A statement issued by the General Secretary of the party, Mr Johnson Asiedu Nketia, on Thursday said although the party had already issued guidelines to govern the whole process and that all was set for the elections in the eight regions, the party had decided to issue additional operational directives on the conduct of the elections to ensure an incident-free elections.
The statement said each delegate was entitled to vote for only one of any two contestants in the contest for Regional Vice-Chairmen, Deputy Regional Youth Organisers or Deputy Regional Women Organisers.
Also, all contestants who had resigned their positions to contest new positions whether from the constituency level or even regional level were no longer delegates to the regional conference and, therefore, could not vote in the election.
Those barred
Additionally, wherever the names of such persons had appeared on the delegates list, they should be crossed out with a red pen and the Regional Director of Elections should sign against it.
According to the statement, the women and youth delegates conferences were to precede the main conference, and should be held separately and not be combined with the main conference.
Also, it said, newly elected Youth and Women organisers were not delegates to the main conference, the reason being that they could only be sworn into office alongside officers elected at the main conference, and until that was done, they were not yet officers of the party and did not qualify as delegates.
Further directives
The statement said all protests were to be resolved by the Electoral Committee of the party with the support and assistance of the National Executive Committee (NEC) representative.
Additionally, the statement by Mr Asiedu Nketia said the party’s constitution and the guidelines for the elections were to be used to resolve any disputes.
On security, it said the Ghana Police Service had been requested to provide security at all the venues to ensure law and order before, during and after the election.
“Consequently, all matters relating to security shall be handled by the Ghana Police Service and no private security is permitted to operate within and without the premises of the conference,” the statement warned.
It said the operational directives formed part of the guidelines of the elections which ought to be observed strictly and wished all contestants the best of luck in the elections.