A member of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Obeng Opambour, has questioned the party’s directive requiring government appointees to resign before contesting its upcoming internal elections, arguing that the decision may not promote fairness.
Speaking on Plan B FM’s Nkosuo Nsem, hosted by Kofi Sekyi, Opambour noted that many members of the party’s National Executive Committee (NEC) currently hold positions in government, making the directive difficult to implement.
“I don’t think it will work. Fairness must prevail,” he said.
Asked whether individuals such as NDC National Chairman Johnson Asiedu Nketia, who also serves as Board Chairman of the Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority (GPHA), should resign if they intend to contest party positions, Opambour said he believed they should be allowed to continue in their roles.
“I think they should allow them to continue their duties and let the delegates decide when the time is right,” he stated.
His comments come after the NDC reaffirmed that government appointees who fail to resign from their positions will not be eligible to contest the party’s forthcoming executive elections.
Speaking on Citi News Digest on Saturday, July 25, Acting IT Director Jibril Mahdi stressed that the party’s guidelines remain in force.
“Whoever is in office is not qualified to contest our elections,” Mahdi said.
He explained that although reports of resignations have circulated on social media, the party headquarters had not officially received notices from most of the affected appointees.
“Officially, we have not received any notice from anybody that has resigned. Whatever we are hearing is based on social media information because, at party headquarters, we are not the appointing authority,” he said.
Mahdi, however, confirmed that some officials had resigned, including the Eastern Regional Chairman, the Eastern Regional Communications Officer, and Leland Tay, who is seeking the position of National Chairman.
The debate comes as the governing party prepares to elect new national executives, with the resignation requirement emerging as one of the key issues ahead of the polls.
By: Bernard Mensah
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