There is seeming tension in the North Tongu constituency of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) of the Volta region following the disqualification of one of the parliamentary aspirants, Mr. Christopher Kofi Eleblu, Today can report.
This was after criminal allegations were leveled against Mr. Eleblu who was the then former Director of Audit at the Ministry of Health (MoH,) by one of the aspirants.
According to sources, sympathizers and members of the NDC in the constituency feel Mr. Eleblu’s disqualification was a deliberate move by the NDC regional and national executives to pave way for the incumbent MP of the area, Mr. Samuel Okudzeto-Ablakwa, to win the upcoming primaries.
Expressing their disappointment in the NDC hierarchy at the regional and national levels, the members threatened to vote against the party in the 2016 General Elections if the National Executive Committee (NEC) fails to clear Mr. Eleblu to contest the parliamentary primaries slated for Saturday, November 21, 2015.
The members could not fathom why some top NDC functionaries including the former Co-ordinator of National Youth Employment Programme (NYEP), Mr. Abuga Pele, Chief Executive Officer at Microfinance and Small Loans Centre (MASLOC,) Mrs. Bertha Sogah, and Madam Betty Crosby Mensah of Afram Plains North constituency, who were also indicted in serious fraud cases which caused financial loss to the state were cleared by the Joint Vetting Committee of NDC to contest the upcoming parliamentary primaries on the ticket of the party.
Subsequently, they urged NEC and the National Council of Elders, the two highest decision-making bodies in the NDC to, as a matter of urgency, avert apathy in the constituency.
Speaking in an interview with Today yesterday in Accra, spokesperson for the branch executives and members of the NDC in North Tongu, Mr. Raymond Akaho, argued that there was a high level of discontent within the rank-and-file of the NDC in the constituency, as most of the party members and sympathisers continued to doubt the NDC’s belief in the core principles of “probity and accountability, as it used to be one of the greatest pillars on which the NDC was formed.
He said they were therefore surprised about the disqualification of Mr. Eleblu, who contested the same parliamentary primaries on the ticket of the NDC in the 2012 elections, but lost to the incumbent MP.
Though he admitted that the North Tongu constituency remains one of the strongholds of the NDC, recent developments could lead to division in the party and further affect the future of the ruling party in the 2016 polls.
“We the branch executives and members of the NDC in North Tongu were attracted to the party as a result of the democratic practices and so if at the end, Mr. Eleblu will not contest in the primaries, it means the democratic principles in the party are no longer of any importance and that will compel us to vote against the party in 2016,” Mr. Akaho on behalf of the members threatened.
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