By Amoako Kwame
The National Democratic Congress did not annul the Ayawaso East Parliamentary primary, it maintained its decision by keeping Baba Jamal as the party’s candidate for the upcoming bye-election.
This comes after allegations of vote buying during the party’s parliamentary primary held on Saturday, February 7. Baba Jamal has vehemently denied the allegations.
A three-member committee established by the party to investigate claims of inducement submitted a report that informed the party’s decision.
Addressing the media on Tuesday, February 10, the NDC’s General Secretary, Fifi Kwetey, listed several constraints that prevented the annulment of the primary, citing delay to present a candidate as one of them
“The committee’s report is that ideally; we should have annulment of the primary. However, the committee acknowledges that there are real obstacles that make it difficult for us to do that. The party’s constitution doesn’t have a provision for annulment of the election.
“We are time-bound because we need to present a candidate to the EC on February 11, and there are legal challenges that could be mounted by whoever won. In light of that, the party has taken the recommendations, and we have no option but to present Baba Jamal as our candidate
He added that the NDC plans to expand the investigative committee as part of broader internal reforms aimed at strengthening party processes
“We’re going to do a comprehensive review of the whole process that lead to our internal elections. We’re expanding the committee by adding four more members, to make it a 7-member committee, so that they come out with recommendations to deal with this inappropriate canker as far as the elections are concerned” he stated
Mr Kwetey also noted that the committee had discovered inappropriate conduct by all the candidates hence the need for reforms to prevent similar issues in future internal elections
Mohammed Baba Jamal has been confirmed as the party’s candidate to contest the Ayawaso East by-election.
