<<Print>>

THERE WAS pandemonium at the Western Regional Executives� congress of the Convention People�s Party (CPP) last Saturday in Takoradi following alleged fictitious details detected on the nomination forms of three contestants. There were catcalls all over the place when the national chairman, Ladi Nylander, failed to use his prerogative to back the findings of a verification committee to disqualify the three people vying for various regional positions. Though there were no blows, the delegates, observers and sympathisers quarreled. When some youth from the Central Region wearing T-shirts bearing the portrait of Paa Kwesi Nduom stormed the place, after waiting for almost three hours outside the main entrance to the hotel, the confusion became more intense. The three contestants at the centre of the controversy were Richard Amoako vying for the position of regional organizer, Moses Twumasi Ankrah aspiring to be regional education secretary and Andrews Kwame Nkrumah Somiah for Western Regional chairman. Many delegates and CPP supporters at the congress alleged that the national chairman was a toothless bulldog because he danced to the tune of Paa Kwesi Nduom and could not take any vital decision on his own. �Step down! step down! weak leader! CPP will forever be in opposition under your chairmanship,� the delegates shouted at Nylander as he passed by. Some delegates told DAILY GUIDE that �because Nylander was sponsored by Kwesi Nduom, he could not disqualify the three contestants, alleged to be staunch supporters of Nduom in his bid to contest the CPP presidential slot and have also been campaigning for Nylander to be re-elected as national chairman of the CPP.� A verification committee headed by Dr. Isaac Kumah disqualified Amoako, Ankrah and Somiah because the three contestants all had the same party card number 101-106-0381, with different dates on their nomination forms among others. The leadership of the party was therefore informed before the congress, but Samuel Gordon Etroo, incumbent regional chairman claimed that as soon as Nylander alighted from his car, he (Nyander) said, �We are not going to disqualify anybody here,� which set the tone for the confusion. Mr. Etroo went to Nylander to welcome him only to hear the national chairman saying, �Before we sit down, I want you people to know that nobody is going to be disqualified,� a comment which did not go down well with the regional chairman and other national executives around. A leading member of the CPP from Bolgatanga, who pleaded anonymity, added that some high profile executives in the party were using the CPP to promote their business and would go to the extent of bribing delegates and conniving illegality because of their affluence. The national chairman of the CPP confirmed that there were some discrepancies with some nomination forms of three persons, but as far as they were known in the party, it was not much of a problem since �politics is about inclusion and not exclusion and therefore that is how come the problem arose�. He said it was not unusual because in 2008 when CPP was issuing party cards, there were lots of anomalies. �After all, did they issue the cards to themselves? Were they not issued by somebody and if somebody issued them, shouldn�t we hold those people responsible?� However, Bright Akwetey, a leading member of the party, said the documents on the forms were fictitious and as a lawyer with a clear conscience, he would not condone fraud and that those three contestants should have been disqualified. He declined to comment further because the case had been referred to the Executive Committee of the CPP for settlement, but expressed disgust at some people who were bent on hijacking the party for their parochial interest. Professor Edmund Delle, former national chairman of party, said it was a big indictment on the CPP that Nylander could not take a fair and firm decision at the congress when it was glaring that the three contestants had fraudulent documents. He said every good leader must be decisive and exercise his prerogative to solve problems but that was not the case with Nylander at the just-ended congress which yielded no results. He stressed that in 2007 when he was party chairman and a similar electoral fraud occurred, he disqualified that person, and so peace and fairness prevailed and the election proceeded successfully.