NPP Congress In Limbo

The possibility of the Ashanti Regional branch of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) holding its regional delegates� congress at the Cultural Centre in Kumasi today has once again hit the rocks. This follows the refusal of a Kumasi High Court 2 to strike out an interlocutory injunction order sought on the congress by Nana Adu Asabere, former Asante Akim North NPP constituency chairman. On Wednesday, December 23, 2009, Nana Adu Asabere sought an order of interlocutory injunction from the court restraining the national and regional executives of the party from holding the regional delegates� congress. His beef at the time was that 14 constituencies in the region were yet to organise their constituency elections to select their officers, hence the organisation of a regional delegates� congress would disenfranchise delegates from those constituencies. Before nana Asabere�s action, he party�s national secretariat in conjunction with the regional office had fixed the regional congress for Wednesday, December 30. This was after the initial slated date of Wednesday, November 15, 2009 could not work due to some outstanding court litigations filed by some f the constituency members. When the case was first called on Monday, January 11, 2010, the court did not strike out the order but instead extended its duration and adjourned the case to Wednesday, January 27, 2010. At that sitting, counsel for the plaintiff, Owusu Sekyere, prayed the court of extend the duration of the order because eight more constituencies were yet to hold their elections. This was after counsel for the defendants, Sir Dennis Agyei, had pleaded with the court to lift the injunction to enable the defendants organise the regional congress. The extension of the order again destroyed the plan of the party as it was hoping to organise the congress on Tuesday, January, 19, 2010, to pave way for the national delegates� congress to be held. For now, all regions apart from the Ashanti Regional have conducted their regional delegates� congresses to elect officers to oversee the running of the party for the next four years. Nursing the hope that the court would strike out the injunction order at the sitting yesterday, the National Council, which is the second highest decision-making body of the party, at its meeting in Accra last Friday fixed the much-awaited congress for today.