The National Democratic Congress (NDC) is asking its members across the country to register with the party before the deadline set for the national exercise.
The ongoing registration exercise ends on Wednesday, February 28.
It forms part of the implementation of the recommendations of the Professor Kwesi Botchwey Committee which probed the party’s abysmal performance in the 2016 general elections.
According to the General Secretary of the party, Mr Johnson Asiedu Nketiah, though the exercise was progressing steadily, it was incumbent on all members of the party to register before the deadline.
He, however, commended all comrades for the enthusiasm with which the exercise had been embraced and, assured them of the commitment to reorganise as the NDC continued to prepare to recapture power in 2020.
Grassroots satisfied
Meanwhile, the grassroots of the party have expressed satisfaction with the move by the national executive to interact with them and prayed that such interactions will continue since it will empower them to know that they own the party and are actively involved in its day-to-day activities.
The Deputy General Secretary (Operations) of the NDC, Mr Koku Anyidoho, disclosed this to the Daily Graphic after leading a monitoring team to the Ashanti Region to monitor the ongoing registration exercise of the party.
According to him, the grass roots explained that the exercise had restored confidence and discipline within their rank and file and deepened respect for the party’s structures, while helping to avoid the repetition of mistakes made in the 2016 election.
The constituency monitoring teams set up to monitor the NDC re-registration and reorganisation exercises have completed a seven-day exercise on the reorganisation and the re-registration of the members of the party across the country.
The exercises were to afford members of the party the opportunity to go to their branches and register. Article 8 of the NDC Constitution makes the branch the entry point of the party and that without the branch membership no member has the locus as a member.
Mr Anyidoho told the Daily Graphic via telephone that the exercise had so far progressed smoothly.
Membership of branch as entry point
Mr Anyidoho expressed the hope that members of the party who wanted to be recognised as such should take advantage of the exercises to register at their branches.
He said per the NDC Constitution, all the leading members of the party, including former Presidents Rawlings and Mahama, as well as the current National Chairman and Leader of the party, Dr Kofi Portuphy, have their branches.
He said the leaders expressed the hope that they would continue to engage them on constant basis and not stay in Accra.
For his part, the National Organiser of the party, Mr Kofi Adams, who led the team in the Eastern Region, also told the Daily Graphic on telephone that the objectives of the teams were to visit and interact with as many party activists in their respective regions as humanely and organisationally possible.
Resolved challenges
He said they also resolved all challenges related to the re-registration exercise in the regions and charted the way forward.
Mr Adams also indicated that reports received were encouraging and assured every member who registered that they would be issued with a membership card after the exercise.
The national organiser said the party would conduct an audit after the close of registration before embarking on the branch, constituency, regional and national elections.
According to him, the team for the Upper West was led by Mrs Betty Mould-Iddrisu, Upper East – Alhaji Saeed Sinare, Northern Region- Hajia Joyce Zeinab Mahama and Brong Ahafo – Bede Ziedeng.
The rest are Western Region – Madam Anita Desoso; Central Region – Joshua Hamidu Akamba; Volta Region – Samuel Ofosu-Ampofo and Greater Accra – Mahdi Gibril.
The NDC embarked on a reorganisation and re-registration of members at the branch level as part of the implementation of the Prof. Kwesi Botchwey Committee report, and also to ensure unity and cohesion at the grass-roots level as recommended by the committee.
Background
Members were required to re-register at their branches where they were known to the executive members to ensure that those whose names got into the register were genuine members of the party who had duly paid their dues to raise funds for the party.
The manual re-registration would later be migrated onto a biometric register, which is intended to create greater and broader participation in the party’s internal election processes which had certain challenges that did not inure to the benefit of the party; hence the decision to undertake a new registration exercise to create a more credible and acceptable database for the party.
After the branches, constituencies, regional and national reorganisation, the party will elect its national officers, after which the stage will be set to elect the flag bearer for the 2020 election.
The reorganisation and re-registration of branches had become necessary because it was obvious that during the last election, the branches did not function as they ought to have done, hence the need for the exercise.
