Private legal practitioner Martin Kpebu has said the National Democratic Congress (NDC) should have pushed the date of their primaries a bit forward from the Saturday, May 13,to allow them enough time to address the concerns of Dr Kwabena Duffuor.
Speaking on the Key Points on TV3 Saturday, May 13, Kpebu said “Naturally, as a lawyer looking at the plethora of issues [Duffior] raised, I would say they should have postponed and addressed all his concerns.
“I get Asiedu Nketia statement that the photo album is not law, thus it is not a constitutional requirement, not part of the NDC internal law. Yes, granted, but you set out to do it because you wanted to improve the system. So it means that it was worth doing it well, simple.
“You thought that it would help the system that is why even though it was not required and in order to increase transparency you sort to bring it in and so if you sort to bring it in you had a duty to complete that exercise.
“You don’t say that because time had run out then we will no longer continue with it, It shows bad planning.”
Dr Kwabena Duffuor withdrew from the NDC Presidential primaries.
At a press conference in Accra on Friday May 12, just a day to the elections, he said”“At the meeting chaired by the former speaker of parliament, Rt Hori Edward Doe Adjaho, all stakeholders at the meeting agreed that the Party Chairman, Johnson Asiedu Nketia would immediately set up a technical team comprising the technical representatives from the 3 presidential aspirants and the party’s election committee to determine how soon the irregularities with the voters register could be resolved in readiness for the Presidential primaries. The technical committee was to subsequently submit a report to parties after this had been determined As I speak with you, our technical team is currently at the Party headquarters to undertake this activity.
“However, despite the assurances given to myself and my team by the Chairman of the party, the executives of the party, in a complete and unacceptable breach of faith, went ahead to convene a press conference announcing that the elections would go ahead tomorrow, without having resolved the concerns surrounding the voters register as decided at the meeting of the Council of Elders”
Dr. Duffuor added that “My concerns that the party is not ready to conduct free and fair election is evident for all to see. Taking part in such would be akin to knowingly drinking from a poisoned calabash. After consulting with my support base nationwide, I have been left with no choice but to withdraw from the Presidential election as I cannot contest in an election which is blatantly fraught with irregularities regardless of all my efforts to draw attention to same.”
Dr Duffuor filed an injunction application against the primaries but withdrew it from the court.
“The plaintiff avers that the partial delivery of the Photo Album 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 of 13th May 2023,” portions of the application said.
The campaign team Dr Duffuor earlier demanded postponement of the May 13 Presidential Primaries over what it describes as a flawed register.