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As part of measures to check if persons who registered and voted in the just ended nationwide presidential and parliamentary primaries of the National Democratic Congress are genuine party activists, the governing NDC says members who fail to be in good standing will be stripped off certain privileges, including the right to vote.

This decision follows claims by some party bigwigs that most of the over 60,000 registered members who voted ‘NO’ in the November 21 presidential primaries were members of the opposition New Patriotic Party who managed to get their names on the party’s voter register.

Speaking to Starr Fm’s Bernard Nasara Saibu ahead of the official declaration of President Mahama as NDC’s 2016 flag bearer at the party’s headquarters last week, John Asiedu Nketsiah, the General Secretary of the party said, it is just a matter of time to determine whether those who have their names in the NDC register are genuine members of the party or not.

“Those who have their names on the register will be one day called upon to discharge party obligations and that is where if you are not a member and you managed to get your name in there, the system will expose you. One of the duties of any NDC member is the payment of dues. So if you have your name in our register and you refuse to pay dues, what that means is that you are not one of us,” he noted.

According to General Mosquito, as the NDC General Secretary is affectionately known, registered members who fail to pay the party’s specified monthly dues will lose voting rights in future internal elections.  

Mr Asiedu Nketsiah early this year announced that the NDC had registered over two million members nationwide in its biometric registration process which allowed every card bearing member of the party to vote in the November 21 parliamentary and presidential primaries.

He explained that the exercise was to help the party know its total number of members in the country for equitable distribution of resources and also help to determine the growth and popularity of government and the president.

He added that it will also strengthen the communication gap among the rank and file and eradicate bribery and corruption in the selection of a parliamentary candidate for the party.

Out of a total of 1, 286 728 party members who cast their votes in last week’s election, 61,836 voted ‘NO’ to President Mahama’s candidature in 265 out of 275 constituencies. The “NO” votes represented 4.90 per cent of a total 1, 260 954 valid votes cast. However, an overwhelming 1,199 118 representing 95.10 percent voted yes.

There has been concern over the number of people who voted ‘NO’ in the election, with some leading members of the NDC, including Member of Parliament for Odododiodoo and deputy Local Government Minister, Edwin Nii Lante Vanderpuije, alleging that those who voted ‘NO’ were NPP members.

However, the General Mosquito said that is not an issue since the legibility of all those who registered as NDC members will be proven when the time comes for “them to discharge basic party obligation.”