NDC Execs Hauled To Court� For Overstaying In Office

A FORMER President of the Akrokerri College of Education branch of the Tertiary Education Institutions Network (TEIN), the student wing of the national Democratic Congress (NDC), has initiated a legal suit against the National Executive Council (NEC) of the party. The NDC is being sued per its National chairman, alongside the Ashanti regional executives Committee, per its regional chairman. Njonolah Linus, the plaintiff, who is the immediate past president of the student body is seeking a declaration that the executives of the first and second defendants have overstayed their mandate of four years as provided by Articles 17 (4), 20 (4) and 23 (4) of the Constitution of the NDC. The writ of summons filed before a Kumasi High Court on Wednesday August 20, 2014, by Lawyer Felix Datsomor of �In God We Trust Legal Consult Limited�, in Kumasi, on behalf of the plaintiff, is also seeking a declaration jointly and severally against the defendants that the decision of the Ashanti Regional Executives to disqualify some card bearing members of the party from the Kwabre and Suame constituencies in particular is null and void, because the guidelines for the election of party executives for 2014 had been grossly breached. Following, the plaintiff wants the court to declare that all the elections organized and held by the second defendants are equally null and void, and prayed the court to order the cancellation of constituency elections. The plaintiff would also want an order of the court to compel the Chairman of the Council of Elders of the party, being the only person whose term of office is unlimited under the NDC Constitution, to constitute an interim Election Committee to organize, hold, oversee and supervise all executive Committee elections. The suit also sought an order of perpetual injunction restraining the defendants and their agents from acting in whatsoever capacity, as long as their mandate has expired and has not been renewed through re-election as provided by the party�s Constitution. The Plaintiff, who is making claims in his capacity as a card bearing member of the NDC, also sought a declaration of the court that Regulation 6 (vi) of the Guidelines for the election of Party Executive Officers of the NDC for 2014 is contrary to the provisions of the Constitution of the NDC and, therefore, null and void. In a 14-point statement of claim filed before the Court, the plaintiff indicated that the executive members of the National Executive Council, the Regional Executive Committee and the members of the Constituency Executive Committee (CEC) have all overstayed their mandate, contrary to the provisions of the NDC Constitution. It said the mandate of the defendants as guaranteed under the party�s constitution is four years which has since January this year elapsed and expired without renewal by re-election as provided by the constitution. Linus, the plaintiff intends to contend at the trial that any action or inaction done or purported to be done by the authority of the defendants is void in the face of the continued stay in office without an extension of their legal mandate through re-election. The Plaintiff said executive members of the second defendant have organized elections at the constituency level and that notwithstanding the expiration of their terms of office disqualified some card bearing members who have indicated their interest in contesting elections at the constituency level without any justifiable cause. The Plaintiff is convinced that the defendants have no reasonable, probable or legitimate defence to the reliefs being sought in the writ of summons, hence the stated claims.