A Youth Organizer hopeful of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), Wonder Madilo, has described his disqualification by the vetting committee as unconstitutional.
According to him, the reasons given by the committee are alien to the party’s internal laws.
The National Organiser of the NDC , Kofi Adams, confirmed on Eyewitness News that Wonder Madilo and two other national executive hopefuls had been disqualified on Thursday for various reasons.
Key among the reasons were that they had not held any position at the branch or constituency level, which should qualify them for a national position.
[contextly_sidebar id=”Hsahs8HNNeLRruEx61CuRtorNaiiFqow”] But speaking to Citi News, the embattled national youth organizer hopeful said, he has written to the Appeals Committee of the party to overturn his disqualification.
“The constitutional provision Article 40 (2) states clearly that you must have been an executive prior to your election. It did not state how many years you aspire for national position so it is wrong and it cannot be one of the things. They must know that the constitution does not lie in the bosom of the vetting committee to determine who is qualified and who is not qualified, and for that matter I have appealed to the appeal’s committee in order for the issue to be addressed.”
He further described the action by the vetting committee as ‘obnoxious’.
“The committee said by their records, in 2016 I took my vote to Ketu South and I did that on instructions to Ketu South just for the main election. The committee held that because I voted in Ketu South, I ceased to be an executive and I lost the membership of my branch, which is obnoxious. It’s wrong and an injustice because there is voting as an individual and holding the voters or national ID card has no bearing on which branch you belong. So I believe the committee was wrong on that score. The committee also said I did not serve for the tenure of four years.”
‘Disqualifications were unbiased’- vetting committee
Meanwhile, the vetting committee has defended its decision to disqualify the two aspirants for the youth organizer position in the upcoming national executive elections.
According to the committee, the grounds for the disqualification have been in the constitution of the party since 2014.
A member of the vetting committee indicated that, some of the disqualified aspirants were unable to prove beyond reasonable doubt which executive positions they have held at any level within the party.
“For instance, if you cannot also show that you once held an executive position from the branch level or you cannot show that you were a member of a certain branch that can also affect you. So there are varied reasons why a person can be disqualified.”
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By: Nii Larte Lartey/citinnewsroom.com/Ghana
