At its meeting on Tuesday, April 18, the Functional Executive Committee of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) postponed making a decision regarding Dr. Emmanuel Jones-Mensah’s eligibility to run in the party’s primary elections for the Keta Constituency.
This came about after the FEC evaluated the report of a special committee that had been formed to decide on particular special appeals arising from the conclusions of the party’s vetting committees and had submitted its findings.
The FEC stated that as of 2018, Mr. Jones-Mensah’s name was not listed in the party’s official Ashaiman database during discussions of the special committee’s findings.
Some FEC members suggested during the aforementioned meeting that the candidate’s name must have been accidentally added to the VALCO BASE FLAT 1A branch register.
Thus, it was claimed that Dr. Jones-Mensah may have been involved in a similar incident at the DZELUKOPE RC branch of the NDC in the Keta Constituency sometime in August 2022.
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Following receipt of a report from the party official in charge of maintaining the party database, the FEC is anticipated to make a final determination regarding the parliamentary candidate who is embroiled in controversy’s eligibility or lack thereof.
In the meantime, Dr. Jones-Mensah’s attorneys had already rejected the allegations in the petition and asked for its dismissal in a letter to the NDC’s vetting committee at Keta dated April 4, 2023.
Dr Jones-Mensah’s lawyer, E.L Agbemava, in the letter, said: “The supposed petition, alleges some membership registration irregularities on the part of our client in the Keta and Ashaiman Constituencies but we on behalf of our client categorically deny all the allegations against him and urge the Vetting Committee to dismiss them as being false, malicious and misleading.”
Meanwhile, Edward Kofi Osei, a member of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) running for office in the Kumawu Constituency, has announced his withdrawal from the primary on Sunday.