The National Democratic Congress (NDC) has organs, including the constituency branch, which have the backing of the party’s constitution to hold elections to choose their own executives to lead them.
Today, NDC’s 276 constituency branches hold elections to choose their respective executives.
In all, the party says a total of 11,825 candidates are slugging it out for 7,728 executive positions.
The Ghanaian Times wishes to profusely congratulate the NDC on having peacefully gone through the necessary processes towards the elections.
We also wish to congratulate the candidates vetted and approved for the elections.
Oftentimes in this country, the periods of preparation for such internal party elections are marked by unpleasant incidents among artificial groupings that emerge for the purposes of the very elections needed for the survival of the party for the achievement of its objectives.
Sometimes the incidents depict some acrimony among party members to the chagrin of others, with some people wondering if the happenings would not undermine party cohesion.
Happily, nothing of the sort has been recorded in the lead-up to today’s elections, and this is a big plus to the NDC.
This is a mark of trust in party structures, including its leadership and internal processes.
This deserves thumps up and reminder to stay loyal to the system.
To that end, it is the hope of everyone, God forbid though, that should there be instances regarding the elections that call for concern, the appropriate channels must be followed for redress to send the right signal that the NDC is a party of mature people who cherish democratic processes.
However, it would be better to forestall any incident that can mar the beauty of the elections, so all the powers that be in the party, and for that matter in the elections, should be sure all is well for peace and tranquillity to prevail today and tomorrow.
We know the country’s Electoral Commission (EC) has always done a yeoman’s job and so would creditably pass this one too, but it should not throw caution to the wind to tarnish its record just in case.
We also appeal to the candidates and their supporters to adopt the sportsmanship approach.
That way, winners would celebrate victory without incurring the displeasure of the also-rans and their supporters, while the losers would accept defeat honourably and hope for better luck next time.
To the security personnel to be detailed at the various voting centres, we say discharge your duties with professionalism.
Should you handle any misconduct, all your actions must be within the parameters of the law.
Every Ghanaian would be happy to hear at the end of the day that the NDC branch elections have ended devoid of unpleasant incidents.
Once Ghana has accepted to be governed by democratic processes, political parties cannot be avoided as they are at the centre of democratic governance.
Therefore the survival of parties is important in such a dispensation because they become the sources of personnel to govern and those to be in opposition to hold the governing to account in the hope that one day they too would have the chance to govern.
Once again we shout a loud congratulations to the NDC on its conduct of constituency elections.
