President John Evans Atta Mills will lose his status as leader of the ruling National Democratic Congress if he is outvoted as the flagbearer at the party’s July presidential primary. According to NDC General Secretary Johnson Asiedu Nketiah, the party’s constitution stipulates that the president shall lead the party whenever the party is in government, however in the event that another member of the party contests and defeats the president for the flagbearership position, the victor then assumes the leadership role. Johnson Asiedu Nketiah was speaking to Radio Gold on Tuesday, a day after the NDC outlined guidelines for its primary to elect a presidential candidate. “The President then becomes an ordinary member of the party but the party cannot remove him as president because he is exercising the mandate of the general population of the country. “So we have a party in government supporting the president to rule but then the president is an ordinary member of the party and not the leader. So that will be the position and it is clear in our constitution.” Asiedu Nketiah, otherwise called General Mosquito, said the flagbearer assumes the leadership role from the moment of his or her election until the next general election and in the event of the flagbearer winning the subsequent elections, he or she continues to be leader. “In the event of he or she losing the next general election, then the leadership now falls on the national chairman of the party till the next election to pick the flagbearer.” Asiedu Nketiah disagreed with the notion that the party had been stampeded into an early congress, saying everything had been planned in accordance with the party’s constitution. He also disagreed with people suggesting that it was a taboo for the sitting president to be challenged to the flagbearer position, as presently intended by the former first lady, Nana Konadu Agyeman-Rawlings, saying that the party’s constitution does not accommodate anything like acclamation. He insisted that even if one person files a nomination, an election will be held to consummate the process. But in the meantime, he explained, there is no contestant yet because no one has filed to contest. Story by Myjoyonline.com/Ghana