The Functional Executive Committee (FEC) of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) has given the green light for the Party to hold its Branch Elections.
The election of officers to lead the Party at the Branch level is the first leg in the series of internal elections of the NDC.
Per the guidelines approved by FEC at its meeting on July 12, 2022, the elections have been divided into four zones – Northern, Middle, Southern, with the Ashanti and Eastern regions making up the fourth zone.
The Northern Zone comprises Northern Region, North East, Savannah, Upper East and Upper West regions.
The Middle Zone consists of Bono, Bono East, Ahafo, Western, and Western North Regions, whereas the Central, Oti, Volta, and Greater Accra regions constitute the Southern Zone.
The elections will be held in more than 38,000 Branches of the NDC across the country – and the positions to be contested are Chairman, General Secretary, Youth Organiser, Women’s Organiser, Branch Organiser, Treasurer, and two executive members.
Addressing a press conference in Accra on Wednesday, July 13, 2022, Mr Johnson Asiedu Nketia, General Secretary, NDC, said the elections would be held on different dates in each of the zones.
He said the filing of nominations in the regions that make up the Northern zone would be opened from 22nd to 23rd July, 2022, and the elections would be held from 27th July to 2nd August, 2022.
He said nominations in the Middle Zone would be opened from 26th to 27th July 2022, and the elections would be held from 31st July to 4th August, 2022.
“In the same vein, the regions that constitute the Southern Zone will open nominations from 26th to 27th July, 2022, and their elections are scheduled from 4th to 9th August, 2022,” Mr Nketia said.
“The two biggest regions, Ashanti and Eastern will be the last to do theirs…Nominations will open from 23rd to 24th August, 2022, and their elections will be from 28th August to 3rd September, 2022” he said.
Mr Nketia said the segmentation would help the Party to supervise the elections thoroughly and ensure that the process was free, fair, and transparent.
He said the nomination forms could be accessed at all regional offices of the NDC as well as online at a cost of GH¢10.00
Mr Nketia said the payment for the forms could be done via an electronic payment platform that had been created by the Party for dues collection and purchase of forms.
Touching on the eligibility criteria, he said all aspirants must be paid-up members of the Party, but old members who had defaulted in dues payment for a long time would be required to pay only three months of the arrears.
“We do not want money to be a barrier to someone becoming a member or officer of the Party so we have pegged the dues at only GHS 2.00 per month.
“We have granted amnesty to old members who have not paid their dues. They will be required to pay just three months of the dues, and that means that they will pay only six cedis,” he said.
Mr Nketia said the elections in constituencies that had challenges with their membership registration exercise would be put on hold until those challenges were resolved.