[ 2011-04-20 ]

President J.E.A. Mills in a handshake with Nana Konadu Rawlings who has indicated she will contest President Mills for NDC's flagbearership.

Prez Mills becomes ordinary member of NDC if defeated at primary - Mosquito
President John Evans Atta Mills will lose his
status as leader of the ruling National Democratic
Congress if he is outvoted as the flagbearer at
the party’s July presidential primary.

According to NDC General Secretary Johnson Asiedu
Nketiah, the party’s constitution stipulates
that the president shall lead the party whenever
the party is in government, however in the event
that another member of the party contests and
defeats the president for the flagbearership
position, the victor then assumes the leadership
role.

Johnson Asiedu Nketiah was speaking to Radio Gold
on Tuesday, a day after the NDC outlined
guidelines for its primary to elect a presidential
candidate.

“The President then becomes an ordinary member
of the party but the party cannot remove him as
president because he is exercising the mandate of
the general population of the country.

“So we have a party in government supporting the
president to rule but then the president is an
ordinary member of the party and not the leader.
So that will be the position and it is clear in
our constitution.”

Asiedu Nketiah, otherwise called General Mosquito,
said the flagbearer assumes the leadership role
from the moment of his or her election until the
next general election and in the event of the
flagbearer winning the subsequent elections, he or
she continues to be leader.

“In the event of he or she losing the next
general election, then the leadership now falls on
the national chairman of the party till the next
election to pick the flagbearer.”

Asiedu Nketiah disagreed with the notion that the
party had been stampeded into an early congress,
saying everything had been planned in accordance
with the party’s constitution.

He also disagreed with people suggesting that it
was a taboo for the sitting president to be
challenged to the flagbearer position, as
presently intended by the former first lady, Nana
Konadu Agyeman-Rawlings, saying that the party’s
constitution does not accommodate anything like
acclamation. He insisted that even if one person
files a nomination, an election will be held to
consummate the process.

But in the meantime, he explained, there is no
contestant yet because no one has filed to
contest.

Source - MyjoyOnline

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