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With less than 24 hours to the national delegates conference of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), various controversial issues appear to be taking centre stage. The timing of a letter written to the party�s election committee by Mr Paul Afoko, a contestant in the chairmanship race, and media reports to the effect that the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) and the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO) were investigating Mr Kwadwo Owusu-Afriyie, aka Sir John, the incumbent General Secretary who is seeking re-election, appear to be brewing factionalism in the NPP ahead of the conference, regarded as key to the efforts of the party to wrest power from the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) in the 2016 elections. Last Wednesday, Mr Afoko wrote a letter to the NPP Election Committee, seeking clarification relating to what the party�s constitution said concerning the composition of the Electoral College. However, some media organisations, in their interpretation of the letter, claimed Mr Afoko wanted Nana Akufo-Addo and Dr Mahamudu Bawumia stopped from voting. But Mr Afoko, at a news conference in Bolgatanga, denied ever stating in the letter that the two personalities be stopped from casting heir ballots. He, however, explained that he was only referring to directors at the national secretariat whose names, per the party�s constitution, were not mandated to be on the register. Other reports said the Member of Parliament (MP) for Suhum, Mr Opare Ansah, had embarked on a last-minute campaign to get the names of the current executives removed from the register. He said the party needed new faces to take it to victory in the 2016 elections. Contrary to the provisions of the NPP constitution, various groups and individuals were endorsing their preferred candidates for the nine positions being contested by the 44 candidates. Mr Afoko, at the press conference, expressed disbelief at the twist given to his letter, which only sought to seek further clarification on, as well as the way forward for, a free, fair and peaceful conference, reports Alhandu Abdul-Hamid from Bolgatanga. The letter The letter stated in part, �Sir, I like to draw your attention also to Article 9 of the party�s constitution. Section 2910 of this article gives us the membership of the National Executive Committee. However, Section C (2ii) states that chairpersons of sector committees, past national chairpersons, past presidential candidates, past running mates, past general secretaries, directors at the national secretariat and such other members as the National Executive Committee may determine shall be entitled to attend meetings of the National Executive Committee but without the right to vote.� It continued: �I have observed that this category of persons who are entitled to attend NEC meetings under Article 9 Section (2ii) have all been included in the delegates register, even though it is clear from the constitution that they are not members of NEC. I have instructed our polling agents to stop anyone from this category who attempts to vote at the upcoming elections.� The letter again stated, �In the same Article 9, Section A sub-section 2 (1) says, �The national delegates conference shall be attended by the following delegates, while sub-section 2 (ii) g says one Tescon representative from each recognised tertiary institution in the country. On the basis of this provision, we expect that only one Tescon representative will vote for the chairmanship position.� It added: �We cannot so soon forget how we poured disdain on the Electoral Commission for what we all described as �fraud in the overseas, proxy votes and over voting� which allegedly resulted in the total votes cast outnumbering the total number of votes on the register. We will have to ensure that the total votes cast in our own elections tally correctly with the total number of voters on the register to keep the credibility of our elections intact and to avoid acrimony and/or court actions.� Explanation Explaining the letter he had written, Mr Afoko said by the mandate of the party's constitution, members of the National Council, which included past national chairpersons, past Presidents, past Vice-Presidents, past presidential candidates and their running mates and past general secretaries, were entitled to vote at the national congress and Nana Akufo-Addo and Dr Bawumia fell within that category. A visibly disturbed Mr Afoko said on the other side, the same constitution spelt out those without voting rights, indicating the directors at the national secretariat who were allowed to attend NEC meetings only as non-voting members have had their names included in the voters register, which was given to the candidates only last week. That was contrary to the provision that it should have been forwarded to them one month before the congress, he said. Flanked by his campaign manager, Alhaji Boniface Abubakar Saddiqq, and an Upper East Regional Minister in the Kufuor administration, Mr Alhassan Samari, Mr Afoko said those were among several issues he raised in his letter to the NEC, which was supposed to be an internal matter but ended up in the media, for which he had been attacked and vilified. He added that the NEC did not even have the courtesy to officially respond to his letter, only for the letter to surprisingly find its way into the media. The candidate said those who had launched the media onslaught and verbal attacks on him were those without voting rights who wanted to hide behind big names in the party and stated that that development was not healthy for the NPP. Those developments, he said, if not addressed urgently, could mar the beauty of the conference and also dent the integrity and credibility of the upcoming elections. Nana won�t vote Meanwhile, the Office of Nana Akufo-Addo has indicated that the former presidential candidate has no plans of voting at the delegates congress. Though Section C (2) of the NPP�s constitution disqualifies Nana Akufo-Addo from voting at the congress, the camp of one of the National Chairman aspirants, Paul Afoko, said it had sighted a delegates' list which included names that ought not to be included. Mr Afoko�s camp consequently wrote a letter to the elections committee of the party, seeking clarification on some provisions of the constitution. But speaking to Citi News, an aide to Nana Akufo-Addo, Mustapha Hamid, said his boss had no plans of voting on Saturday. Citing a precedent, he stated, �In 2010 in Kumasi, Akufo-Addo didn�t vote and wasn�t interested in voting and hasn�t told anyone he is interested in voting during the Tamale conference.� In a related development, Nana Akufo-Addo arrived in Tamale yesterday ahead of the conference. He was accompanied by his running mate, Dr Bawumia; Mr Freddy Blay; the Ayawaso Central MP, Henry Quartey, and a former Greater Accra Regional Minister, Sheikh I.C. Quaye. Hundreds of party supporters were at the Tamale Airport to welcome the 2012 party leader who has declared his intention to run again in 2016. Sir John A pro-NPP newspaper, the NPP News Digest, reported about a legal suit against Mr Owusu-Afriyie for filing a statement containing false accounts of the NPP�s expenditure in the 2012 elections and went ahead to state that EOCO and the GRA were conducting investigations into Sir John�s alleged car rental business. But, in a swift reaction, Sir John�s campaign team issued a statement yesterday which said its �attention had been drawn to yet another false story currently making the rounds on several media outlets that Sir John was the subject of an investigation by the GRA and EOCO for the non-payment of tax�. �Clearly, the story, written by the NPP News Digest, which suddenly sprang up two days to the national delegates conference of the New Patriotic Party, is aimed at causing disaffection for Sir John in Saturday�s conference. The story has been fabricated, pure and simple,� the statement said. It asked: �For the grievous offence of withholding tax from the state, is it not strange that none of the state agencies mentioned by the publishers of the story (GRA and EOCO) has not bothered to contact Sir John so far?� It further said Sir John had never defaulted on any of his tax obligations to the state and was, therefore, not the subject of any investigations by state agencies. �We urge NPP delegates and the general public to disregard such falsehoods clearly aimed at derailing the campaign of the winning candidate for the position of General Secretary of the NPP, Sir John,� the statement, signed by the Campaign Coordinator, Mr Frank Asiedu Bekoe, concluded.