The Electoral Commission (EC) says it will not be able to supervise the conduct of the National Democratic Congress presidential and parliamentary primaries slated for Saturday, 13″ May, 2023 until after the determination of the application For Interlocutory Injunction filed against the party by Dr Kwabena Duffour, one of the contestants.
“Further to our meeting this afternoon on the above mentioned subject, we write to formally inform you that having been served with an seeking to restrain the Electoral Commission from supervising the conduct of the Presidential and Parliamentary Primaries of the National Democratic Congress,” it said in a statement issued in Accra yesterday and signed by EC’s Chairperson Mrs Jean Mensah.
Dr Kwabena Duffuor, has filed an interlocutory injunction against the opposition party seeking to halt the Saturday May 13, 2023 planned presidential and parliamentary primaries.
In the suit filed on Tuesday May 9, 2023, the former Finance Minister wants the Electoral Commission to also be barred from conducting the polls.
In the writ of summons to the NDC, the Court “commanded” the party to within eight days of service of the writ on it to cause an appearance for hearing, which takes the day of hearing to Monday, May 15, 2023, two days after the election would have taken place.
Joint to the suit are the Director of Elections of the party and co-contenders, former President John Dramani Mahama and Kojo Bonsu, a former Mayor of Kumasi.
It is Dr Duffuor’s claim that the voters register for the polls was riddled with “inaccuracies” and renders it not fit for the purpose of electing someone to bear the flag of the party into the 2024 general elections.
In the suit, Dr Duffuor said out of the 275 constituency registers given to him, the data show that only 220 constituencies have been verified as presented to him by the party barely four days to the polls.
According to him, an exceptional list of 74,799 voters, which could not be verified, has also been created.
The inaccuracies, Dr Duffuor, a former Governor of the Bank of Ghana said would compromise the integrity of the election to his detriment.
“Upon verification [of the data], it was found that the number of constituencies on the hard drive given to his representatives was 220 in number as opposed to the alleged number of 228 constituencies indicated by the defendant.
“[The data] established basic errors and inaccuracies that render the photo album register inaccurate and unreliable for a free, fair and credible elections scheduled for May 13, 2023,” the suit said in part.
Some of the delegates, the suit avers, have been duplicated and given different names and different party identification numbers adding that “sizeable number of the eligible voters have no photographs exhibited on the photo album register making it impossible to conduct any meaningful verification exercise on these persons.
To this end, Dr Duffuor said the polls ought to be postponed; a request the party has rejected.
“The reluctance of the defendant to extend the time for the internal elections and provide a complete and credible photo album register ahead of time to the presidential aspirants for verification smacks of a plan to create undue advantage for the manipulation of the presidential primaries.”
BY JULIUS YAO PETETSI
