The General Secretary of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Mr Johnson Asiedu Nketia, has replied former President Rawlings on allegations he made on Wednesday that the party's leadership had postponed the National Delegates' Congress twice to favour President Mills. Among claims of corruption, vote buying and other vices, ex-President Rawlings accused the National Executives of the NDC of postponing the National Delegates’ Congress on two occasions – from late last year to March this year - because a research they conducted showed the President was going to lose his position as the leader of the party to his opponent Nana Konadu Agyeman-Rawlings. “Their first research showed that this lady (Nana Konadu) was going to win 82 per cent of votes at the delegates congress then they went ahead to bribe people some more and the rate reduced to about 76 per cent, which means some people yielded to the bribe,” Mr Rawlings alleged. However, Mr Asiedu Nketia in his bid to set matters straight, said “I wouldn’t have answered at all but to the extent that that statement if it goes unanswered will dent the integrity of the process we are going through I deem it my responsibility to respond…” “We have never had any occasion to postpone the process we are going through now at all. “In fact, this is the first time in the history of the National Democratic Congress where we have established clear timetables and we have so far stuck to the timeliness as it is in the timetable.” According to the NDC constitution, he noted, the party when in opposition - must elect a flagbearer ‘at least 24 calendar months’ before the general elections and ‘12 calendar months’ before the major elections when in office. “Going by the traditions of the Electoral Commission (EC), we can safely guess that the next general election will take place in the first week of December 2012. “For which reason the party (NDC) has up to December 2011 to elect our flagbearer…therefore, we are perfectly in time,” Mr Nketia maintained. The General Secretary who was speaking at the party's Headquarters before he handed over nomination forms to President Mills, also stated that the party has never conducted an opinion poll to check the popularity of President Mills as ex-President Rawlings claimed. He pleaded with both contesting parties to leave the National Executives out of their controversies and ensure their campaigns are devoid of insults. Story by Dorcas Efe Mensah/myjoyonline.com/Ghana