Accra, June 10, GNA- Strangers who do not share in the ideals of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) will lead the Party if the NDC does not discourage monetisation of its internal elections, Alhaji Huudu Yahaya, longest-serving General Secretary of the Party, has said.
Alhaji Yahaya said the practice where “the highest bidder” was chosen by delegates to lead the Party by virtue of their wealth and not their competence was dangerous for the future of the Party.
“If we don’t discourage ‘moneycracy’ strangers will lead the NDC,” he said in a lecture at the NDC’s 30th anniversary celebration in Accra on Friday, June 10, 2022.
The anniversary is on the theme: “30 year’s of unity, stability, and development.”
The NDC is a social democratic political party in Ghana, founded by the late Jerry John Rawlings, who was Head of State of Ghana from 1981 to 1993 and the President of Ghana from 1993 to 2001.
The Party was given its provisional certificate by the Electoral Commission on June 10th 1992, which granted it the right to operate as a legally registered political party. The NDC has since marked June 10 as the Founding Day of the Party.
It has commenced processes to hold its internal elections to elect officers to steer its affairs at all levels in the next four years.
Currently, the Party is registering new members and that exercise will pave way for the conduct of the Branch elections from June 15 to July 1 2022.
The Party will hold its Constituency executive elections in September this year, followed by the regional elections in October, and then the national congress in November this year.
Alhaji Yahaya said the NDC must put measures in place to ensure that no interested NDC member was denied a Party card at the branch level.
“No NDC constituency executive should deny any qualified person at the branch level a party card. The Party is traveling into 2024 on the wheels of the branches,” he said.
He urged the Party to also take strong disciplinary action against any member who would campaign for ‘skirt and blouse’ ahead of the 2024 general election.
“Any NDC aspirant who will campaign on tribal and religious basis, should be disqualified,” Alhaji Yahaya said.
The NDC has so far won four out of the eight general elections since 1992. The governments of 1993-1996, and 1997-2000 (under Jerry John Rawlings) , 2009-2012 ( under Atta Mills) and 2012-2016 under John Dramani Mahama) were formed.
The Party currently has 136 seats in Parliament.
GNA