The National Democratic Congress (NDC) has denied allegations that its election officials are deliberately obstructing Stephen Donkor’s attempt to contest Fifi Fiavi Kwetey for the position of General Secretary.
Mahdi Jibril, the party’s Acting Director of IT and Elections, said the NDC had no reason to stop any qualified member from standing in its national executive elections. He said the online nomination system was created to ensure that all eligible aspirants could submit their nominations.
“I think it’s unfortunate if anybody would say this. This is a system we developed to allow any member of the party to be able to file and contest anybody,” he said.
“So I’m surprised if he’s saying that we are preventing him from contesting a candidate in this.”
Jibril was responding to a complaint from Donkor, who is seeking to unseat Fifi Fiavi Kwetey as General Secretary. Donkor says his login credentials for the party’s online nomination portal were altered without his consent, leaving him unable to complete the filing process.
In a petition to the Congress Elections Committee, Donkor said he had paid the GH¢80,000 filing fee but could not access the portal to complete and submit Forms A and C.
He asked the committee to accept his nomination without the outstanding forms while efforts were made to restore his access to the system.
Jibril, however, maintained that the party was not preventing Donkor from contesting. He said the aspirant had gone to the NDC headquarters, where officials provided assistance with the nomination process.
The Acting Director of IT and Elections also questioned whether Donkor had shared his login details with another person, suggesting that the aspirant’s own actions could have contributed to the problem.
“But I want to believe that he himself knew what he was trying to do. And that is why he’s playing to this gallery of issues. But I believe sincerely, if you have not engaged anybody to do what he’s doing, we will not be getting to this point,” he added.
The dispute comes ahead of the NDC’s National Delegates Congress on December 19, when the party will elect new national executives.
The party’s published submission record, updated as of November 9, listed Fifi Fiavi Kwetey as the only aspirant to have submitted nomination forms for the General Secretary position.
The NDC has cautioned that the record is provided for information purposes only and does not confirm that any listed candidate has met the requirements to contest.
A vetting exercise will determine which aspirants are qualified to take part in the election.
