Politics

PNC leadership urged to resolve differences

A flagbearer hopeful of the Peoples’ National Convention, Samson Asaaki Awingobit has urged the party’s Council of Elders to intervene in the disagreement among the various intra-factions.

Mr Awingobit who has been meeting PNC executives across the country said their members are clamouring for a united front ahead of the December polls.

The electoral fate of the PNC towards the December general election remains unknown to internal party wrangling.

While a faction led by the National Chairman, Bernard Mornah, claimed there has not been enough preparation for an internal elections towards the selection of a flagbearer, other faction led by a former flagbearer and leader of the party, Dr Edward Nasigiri Mahama think otherwise.

In an interview, Mr Awingobit pleaded with the party’s Council of Elders to find a lasting solution to the challenges hindering the conduct of the congress for the selection of a flagbearer and other national executives.

“After my declaration, I started meeting interest groups in our party. I met, Dr Edward Mahama, the national executives, all the 16 regional chairmen of the party, and the regional secretaries. 

I went on a tour of the Upper East Region. I will want to implore our Council of Elders to step in and take leadership of the party and form an ad-hoc committee and let them go with the EC officials to affirm by popular acclamation to those that are contesting to be executives and move ahead to conduct the congress to elect the flagbearer for the party because there is no time on our side. It is not because of their challenges that my ambition will be in vain,” he stated.

Meanwhile, General Secretary of the PNC, Attik Mohammed noted that with barely five months to the 2020 election, the processes for the congress should be finalised by the end of August.

“At the congress, we hold the two activities concurrently, whereby we elect the flagbearer and new national executives to run the affairs of the party for the next four years. 

So hopefully, by the end of August, we should be heading towards congress. 

This is because the tenure of the current executives has expired and we should have renewed our mandate through Congress by December last year,” he added.

On his part, the PNC’s national youth organiser, Awudu Ishak, was oblivious of such a plan to elect a flagbearer for the December polls.

“The leader of the party who is Dr Edward Mahama is serving as an Ambassador-at-Large under the Akufo-Addo’s government and seem not to be interested in the forward march of the PNC,” he asserted. 

“On a number of occasions, when the National Chairman of the party, vested the necessary powers to convene a national executive committee meeting in consultation with the leader of the party for all of these matters to be discussed, the leader usually shoots down such proposals insisting that at an appropriate time, he will call for that particular meeting as far as the reorganisational plan is concerned,” he said.

He added that Dr Mahama did not want to hear anything about the national executive committee meeting that will set the motion and propel the PNC for the general election. 

Apart from Mr Awingobit, who is also the Executive Secretary of the Importers and Exporters Association, a former PNC Member of Parliament for Bolgatanga Central, David Apasara, has also served notice to contest for the flagbearer slot. 

The PNC has contested all national elections since the inception of the Fourth Republic apart from the 1992 parliamentary election, which it boycotted along with other opposition parties.

The last time the PNC elected new officials was in 2015 when Edward Mahama became its presidential candidate for the 2016 elections.

– citifmonline.com

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