NDC General Secretary, Fifi Fiavi Kwetey, says the party’s decision to require government appointees to resign six months before contesting in internal structural elections is aimed at opening up leadership opportunities and preventing a concentration of power in the hands of a few individuals.

Speaking on Joy News’ PM Express on Monday, he said the NDC is a large party with millions of supporters and many capable people, making it necessary to ensure leadership roles are shared, rather than “stacked.”

“A party as big as the NDC, with millions of supporters, it’s a party that has so many people capable of holding positions,” he said.

According to him, once some members hold positions of responsibility in government, it makes sense for the party to allow others to take on additional leadership roles within the party structure.

“So if you have someone who, at the moment, has been given a position of responsibility, it simply makes a lot of sense to want to ensure that others are given the opportunity to hold other positions as well,” he stated.

Fifi Kwetey was responding to a question from host Evans Mensah on the rationale behind the party’s recent announcement that appointees of the President, or those serving in government positions, must resign at least six months before contesting in any structural elections from the branch level to the international level.

He explained that the party has defined certain appointment categories that are particularly demanding and entail full-time responsibility at the highest levels.

“If you want to compete for a position where you already have one key appointment, and we have defined some of the categories… some of the categories tend to be pretty engaging,” he said.

He listed appointments at the ministerial, CEO, and district, municipal, and metropolitan levels as examples of roles that require deep and continuous engagement.

“Like full-time responsibility at the highest level, where you are in charge of entities, whether at the ministerial level, or at the CEO level, or the district or municipal metropolitan level, those are very engaging positions,” he noted.

Mr Kwetey argued that it is difficult for a person to hold such a demanding government role and still seek to occupy an elective party position, without compromising effectiveness.

“And if you still want to have that and also hold what you call an elective position at the party level, we simply want to say that you can’t really, really even run the two very efficiently,” he said.

He stressed that such appointments are not ordinary roles but require constant attention and time.

“Because, as you appreciate, when you move into such positions, it’s virtually like 24/7, you are very engaged,” he added.

Kwetey maintained that the new requirement is intended to protect both party work and government work, while ensuring that more members have the opportunity to serve and lead within the NDC.