Hon. Matthew Opoku Prempeh, NPP MP for Manhyia believes though General Secretary of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Johnson Asiedu Nketia, might have been bragging or hallucinating when he claimed at the just ended National Delegates Congress of the ruling NDC that 60% of the people who emerged victorious in the recently held District Assembly elections are favourable to the NDC, he has placed a hangman�s noose around his neck and is likely to be called upon to explain his comments in a court of law.
His threat stems from what he describes as a breach of the nation�s Constitution which bars political parties from actively participating in district assembly elections.
The General Secretary is reported to have said that as part of the achievement of the party, 60% of people favorable to the NDC won the district election.
��records show that our performance as a party is evident as the people elected in the assemblies are NDC sympathisers raised from between 85% in the Volta region to 38% in the Ashanti region�It is even more remarkable to note that in Eastern region, our sympathizers won more than 51% of the seats available. Overall, NDC sympathizers scored over 60% countrywide,� Asiedu Nketia also known as General Mosquito said at the Congress grounds in Sunyani.
Speaking in an interview on Citi Eye Witness News, the Manhyia MP said what the NDCs General Secretary said flies in the face of the country's constitution.
��this is an apology of a government system we are operating. I don�t know if we are in a Kangaroo form of government or a democratic government. It is sad that under an Associate Professor of Law in the country, the constitution is being subverted. It is a sad day in the history of our country. Article 248 (1 and 2) states that �a party should not sponsor and so how is he going to collect those information if he didn�t sponsor. Article 248:2 also says that �a political party shall not indulge, sponsor, offer a platform or in any way campaign for or against the candidates seeking elections to a district assembly or any local government unit. This is a clear breach of the law...� he added.
However, Minister for Local Government and Rural Development, Hon. Samuel Ofosu Ampofo, sharply disagrees. He contends that the District Assembly election was well monitored and there was no evidence that any political party sponsored any candidate.
According to him, though the law states that District Assembly elections must be nonpartisan, it does not explicitly say that those involved cannot belong to a political party.
�The law states that parties cannot sponsor candidates but the Honorable Matthew Opoku Prempeh knows very well that after elections have been conducted, when you enter any district Assembly and you are a Member of Parliament there and your party chairman contested the election and won, you know that that person is an NPP or NDC person�If the NDC secretary contested the elections and won on his own merit without party sponsorship, it does not take anything away from him that his allegiance is to the NDC�So I do not think that the inference that the NDC General Secretary made, that people who are perceived to be favourably disposed to NDC won the assembly elections is by any stretch of the imagination a breach of the Constitution,� Hon Ofosu Ampofo said.
Asked what he intends doing about the issue, Napo, as the Manhyia MP is affectionately called replied, �I don�t act alone. I didn�t go to parliament on my own merit; I went on the ticket of the New Patriotic Party and I will discuss with the party leadership and we will know what we are going to do. We should all condemn it. May be he was boasting or hallucinating but it is wrong,� Matthew Opoku Prempeh.
Source: Rebecca Quaye/Peacefmonline.com
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