NPP Confirms Ahmed Arthur

The National Council (NC) of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) has finally given Ahmed Arthur the permission to contest the Okaikoi South constituency parliamentary election on the ticket of the party. The decision was reached yesterday after a meeting of the council. Mr Arthur contested and won the parliamentary primaries held in April 2011 against Vicky Bright, a former deputy Minister in the Kufuor administration. He was later accused of having forged a certificate to enable him to contest the position, resulting in the nullification of the results of the primaries for further investigations. A petition filed by Ms. Bright, a lawyer, questioning the credibility of the electoral register used for the primaries was dismissed after investigations by the Appeals Committee of the party which said the election was free and fair. She later lodged another complaint that her opponent Ahmed Arthur did not attend the Ghana Institute of Journalism (GIJ) as he stated in the documents he submitted to the party before the elections. The leadership of the party announced its intention to re-run the elections, after nullifying the earlier one. However, Ahmed petitioned the National Council to reverse the decision of the National Executive, leading to the restoration of his mandate. After extensive investigations and careful consideration, a Deputy Communications Director of the party, Perry Okudzeto, told DAILY GUIDE yesterday, �From the various levels, it was taken to the National Council and they decided that he should be allowed to run.� �He�s been cleared of all the allegations levelled against him, he is the candidate for the constituency,� Mr Okudzeto said, noting, �If you look at what has happened so far, throughout the process and all the appeals that have happened; the election has not been fraught so all those allegations have not stood any grounds.� The decision comes after months of back and forth movement over who gets to represent the party in the constituency as its parliamentary candidate in the 2012 elections. Consequently, Perry said the party was taking steps to write to Mr Arthur and subsequently speak to the parties involved in the dispute for them to bury their differences to help the candidate in his campaign to retain the seat for the NPP. Attempts to get Mr Arthur and Vicky�s views proved futile.