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.
According to 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, 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, 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 July 22 to 23, 2022, and the elections would be held from July 27 to August 2, 2022.
He said nominations in the Middle Zone would be opened from July 26-27, 2022, and the elections would be held from July 31 to August 4, 2022.
“In the same vein, the regions that constitute the Southern Zone will open nominations from July 26 to 27, 2022, and their elections are scheduled from August 4-9, 2022,” Mr Nketia said.
“The two biggest regions, Ashanti and Eastern will be the last to do theirs…Nominations will open from August 23 to 24, 2022, and their elections will be from August 28 to September 3, 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.
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. -GNA
