NDC refers injunction to lawyers, hopeful it won’t affect election of its flagbearer

The National Democratic Congress (NDC) says the injunction placed on its presidential primary may not affect the election as the party has taken steps to resolve the issues before January 26, 2019.

It said the writ of sermons which triggered the granting of the injunction on Tuesday has been forwarded to the party’s lawyers for the necessary action to be taken on the case brought by two party members.

James Kabu Nartey and Abdallah Issah sued the NDC Tuesday and applied for injunction ahead of the hearing of the substantive case in which they are challenging the legality of the rules and guidelines covering the NDC presidential primary.

They are challenging among other things, sections of the guidelines which require that one has to be a member of the party for ten years before he or she can contest to lead the NDC as presidential candidate, as well as the initial 400,000 filing fee for aspirants.

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Deputy General Secretary of the NDC, Peter Boamah Otokunor confirmed on Yen Sempa morning show on Onua FM Wednesday that the party has been served with the court documents and same have since been forwarded to their legal team for advice.

“We have given it [writ of sermons] to our lawyers for them to take action and it may not change anything”, he told host of Yen Sempa, Bright Kwesi Asempa.

Mr. Otokunor said the lawyers are well-versed in law, hence the party does not foresee a distraction of the timetable due to the injunction.

Background

Eight of the flagbearer hopefuls raised concerns about the 400,000-cedi filing fee announced by the party for the presidential primary and consequently petitioned the NDC Council of Elders on the matter.

The eight; Alban S.K. Bagbin, Ekwow Spio-Garbrah, Sylvester Mensah, Stephen Atubiga, Nurideen Iddrisu, Goosie Tanoh, Kojo Bonsu and Elikplim Agbemava have described the fee as unreasonable.

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“We oppose these fees on the grounds that they call the Party’s fundamental commitment to social democracy into question,” they stated, adding “…these fees are entirely out of line with the party’s own historical practice”.

Thy have accordingly proposed 5,000 cedis for the nomination forms and additional 100,000 as filing fees.

They also want to be given six weeks to complete their nomination forms, and move the presidential primary from the scheduled January 19, 2019 to March 2019.

The petitioners alleged NEC failed to meet the procedural requirements in the party’s constitution in publishing the Guidelines for the presidential primary.

They claim NEC exceeded its powers by impose additional eligibility criteria on candidates or aspirants, and also demonstrated elements of bias in favour of an aspirant they did not name in the petition.

• NDC filing fee slashed to ¢300K, aspirants have up to Dec 8 to pick forms

Following an intervention by the Council of Elders, the party slashed the amount by 100,000 cedis and also pushed the primary to January 26, 2019.

By Kweku Antwi-Otoo|3news.com|Ghana