Members of an NDC youth group say they are disappointed in the national, regional and constituency executives of the party for supporting Zanetor Rawlings when she is not eligible to stand as a parliamentary candidate.

The NDC group - Klottey Korle Grassroots Supporters Network - said in a statement that Zanetor Agyeman Rawlings should not have been given the nod to contest in the primaries.

“It is this lapse that has dragged the name of our Party into disrepute and today, our Party is being discussed in the media in a negative light,” a statement signed by group convener, Kester Korankye said.

Although Zanetor Rawlings won the Klottey Korle primaries of the NDC hands down, there have been strong opposition to her candidacy with some questioning her eligibility to contest.

Some party supporters say she is a registered voter, a claim that seems to have been corroborated by a leaked letter from the Electoral Commission.

The Klottey Korle Grassroots Supporters Network say the revelation by the EC has not come as a surprise to them.

“We had our own reservations, and even petitioned the Founder of our Party who happens to be the father of Zanetor Rawlings to call our sister, his daughter, to order and convince her to step down from her overzealous ambition of running for Parliament when she did not qualify per the rules of the Party and the country,” the statement said.

Read the full statement below.

PRESS STATEMENT BY GRASS ROOT SUPPORTERS NETWORK-KLOTTEY KORLE

We members of the Klottey Korle Grassroots Supporters Network and staunch members of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), the party we unreservedly support with all of our hearts, are disappointed in the National, Regional and Constituency executives of our Party who presided over their mandated task of vetting persons who were interested in representing our party in this year's General Elections and allowed Zanetor Agyeman Rawlings whom they ought to have known right from the start did not qualify per the rules of the Party, the Constitution of the Party, and the Constitution of Ghana to contest the November NDC Parliamentary Primaries.

It is this lapse that has dragged the name of our Party into disrepute and today, our Party is being discussed in the media in a negative light.

We have sighted the letter from the Electoral Commission and read its contents revealing that Zanetor Agyeman Rawlings is not a registered voter on the Electoral Commission's National Voters' Register.

This news does not surprise some of us since we have, from the very beginning, tried to draw the attention of our Party's structures to the ineligibility of Zanetor Rawlings to run on our ticket for Parliament.

We had our own reservations, and even petitioned the Founder of our Party who happens to be the father of Zanetor Rawlings to call our sister, his daughter, to order and convince her to step down from her overzealous ambition of running for Parliament when she did not qualify per the rules of the Party and the country.

There were other attempts by other members of our party in the Constituency to correct the wrong Zanetor's candidature posed to the fortunes of the Party in the constituency, yet all of these good-faith attempts to save the image of our Party and that of our sister from ridicule unfortunately fell on deaf ears.

As members of the NDC, we always seek the fortunes of the Party and, at all times, we have demonstrated our willingness to support whoever our Party elects to run for any office on our Party's ticket as long as that person qualifies per the laws of Ghana and our Party.

We in Klottey Korle supported Nii Armah Ashietey twice and he won the seat from the NPP for our party, changing the fortunes of the Party in the constituency that has currently become the most keenly contested in the country.

We campaigned and worked so hard to see the united NDC that people are so eager to lead now. People sacrificed their time, resources and energy just so that NDC will dominate Klottey Korle like we see today.

There were times when our Party's structures in the constituency were non-existent, yet people labored - traversing the entire constituency, from branch to branch and from ward to ward, holding meetings, assembling people and encouraging them to get dedicated to the cause of the Party. Hard work, sacrifice, selflessness, dedication and honesty saw us through all these years and kept our Party at the top of the Constituency.

Zanetor Agyeman Rawlings has been dishonest with us, she has deceived us, the people of Klottey Korle, the NDC and the entire country, taking all of us for granted and wasting our time, energy and resources when she knew that she was unqualified to run for Parliament yet went ahead and picked nomination forms, went through the vetting process, initiated a campaign and actually contested for the NDC parliamentary primaries last November.

We recall the look on her face on election day in November last year, as she went from polling station to polling station searching for her name in the register and seeking to give the impression that some person or group of persons had tried to disenfranchise her, when she knew all along that she was not a registered voter.

Our dear Party and our sister Zanetor will clearly be further embarrassed if she is not called to order.

No permanent structure can be built on zero and therefore we take this opportunity to advise our sister to rescind her decision to go ahead with her illegal bid to run for Parliament.

As the High Court Judge said when he threw out her recent application “if one is not eligible to contest the election because he or she is not qualified, he or she can at any time even after the General Elections be disqualified on the grounds that the election was a nullity”.

We demand an unqualified apology from Zanetor Agyeman Rawlings to the Party, the other contestants and we, the electorate in Klottey Korle, for taking all of us for granted and wasting our time.  We also demand an immediate withdrawal of her Parliamentary Candidacy to allow her time to reflect on the wrongs she has perpetuated on us and ask for forgiveness from God.

We, however, suggest that she gets an NDC branch in the Klottey Korle Constituency to register with and start active work if she will in future want to contest on our Party's ticket for Parliament.

Finally we advise her to ensure that she doesn't miss the opportunity this time round when the EC opens for limited registration in April to put her name and records on the Electoral Commission register to guarantee her legal participation in our politics. 

Finally, it has been brought to our attention that there are plans being hatched to indefinitely suspend Hon Nii Armah Ashietey and Nii John Coleman so that after the EC opens for limited registration in April, our sister will register and the situation will be manipulated for her to go unopposed.

We assure those planning that this is not the NPP.  This is the great NDC built on accountability, probity and transparency.

Our Founder is the great Jerry John Rawlings. He definitely and certainly will not orchestrate or allow persons to orchestrate the victimization of innocent party warriors who have toiled for this Party, simply to allow his ineligible daughter to run for Klotte Korle.

We believe the truth shall stand tall at all times.

Long live Klottey Korle NDC!

Convener

Nana Kwesi Aburam-Korankye

(0248128784)