NDC to test key reforms in 2016

The National Democratic Congress (NDC) will test its key electoral reforms in 2016, the Deputy General Secretary of the party, Mr George Lawson has disclosed.
Currently, he said the party hierarchy was eliciting views from the rank and file of the party in order to arrive at a broader consensus on the key reforms for subsequent elections.

Former President Jerry John Rawlings last Saturday, cautioned that unless the ruling NDC undertook key reforms by enlarging its electoral college, victory for the party in the 2016 elections would be elusive.

“Our party, the NDC, needs some significant reform to face the challenges of the dynamic global political climate. Our current internal structures need to be reviewed. I do not think the necessary reforms required in order to clean up the image of the party are being treated with the urgency they require. If we do not act in cleaning up the party, we will, as I warned before, face a problem in 2016”, he warned.

In an interview with the Daily Graphic, Mr Lawson said that already the party had taken into consideration the views espoused by the former President for key electoral reforms but explained that “we can’t push reform proposals down the throats of our members hence the need for their contribution in the whole crucial exercise of reforming the party”.

He also stated that for the reforms to be fully implemented, it required constitutional amendment which hopefully would be done during the party’s national delegates congress.

According to the Deputy General Secretary, plans were far advanced for the party to introduce “biometric technology” in the registration of its members.

This, according to Mr Lawson, was aimed at expanding the Electoral College as well as preventing non-party members from taking part in the election of national officers, presidential and parliamentary candidates for the party.

‘’We need to register our party members with biometric technology so that each member will be a card bearing member. The issue of candidates going independent will, therefore, not arise because every member in the constituency will be able to vote for a candidate of their choice,” he stated

According to Mr Lawson, unlike the reforms of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) for the 2012 elections, the NDC was aiming at introducing an entirely broad-based new form of registration of its members and voting of candidates at their primaries.

“We are receiving wonderful ideas and suggestions from the party’s rank and file which cumulatively will form the key electoral reforms of the party for the 2016 elections,” Mr Lawson concluded.

By Kobby Asmah & Abdul Aziz/Daily Graphic/Ghana