The National Youth Organiser of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) has explained what led to the confusion during the women and youth leadership elections at the party’s 10th Women and Youth Conference at the University of Cape Coast.
Speaking in an interview on Power FM, which was monitored by GhanaWeb, George Opare Addo, who is popularly known as Pablo, said that the election was delayed because of issues surrounding the eligibility of some of the delegates who were to take part in the elections.
He explained that there were issues with some delegates who had been barred from taking part in the elections by court orders, as well as the leadership of student groups that had intentionally not held their elections.
According to him, there was a court order barring three executives from the Eastern Region, the regional youth organiser and his two deputies, from taking part in the election, but his opponent was saying that all the executives from the region, including the constituency executives, were not to take part in the elections.
He, however, indicated that the issues raised were resolved with the help of the party’s lawyers, who were present, and the organisers of the conference, allowing the elections to continue.
“They made a lot of demands, which I accepted; my only demand was that I was not going to accept their move to exclude executives from three constituencies in the Eastern Region because they were misinterpreting the court order.
“And that one was based on facts, law. Because the law did not say that they should not be allowed to vote. The law stated those who were barred from voting, and they were the regional organiser and his two deputies,” he said in Twi.
He added that in the Greater Accra Region, some of the names on the voters’ registers had to be taken out, and the two parties to the youth elections came to an agreement for the elections to proceed.
Pablo was the eventual winner of the NDC’s youth organiser position, but the election was marred by violence.
The Ghana Police Service has even declared 16 people who were involved in the violence during the election, wanted.
Source: Ghana Web
