The national congress is scheduled to take place at the Trade Fair Centre in Accra where the party is expected to elect national officers to steer the affairs of the party towards the 2020 general election.

Towards that end, the party, at a press conference addressed by its General Secretary, Mr Johnson Asiedu Nketia, formally inaugurated a 17-member national planning committee chaired by himself.

The various committees

In addition, 11 other committees and one sub-committee were inaugurated, bringing the total number of committees and the sub-committee to 13.

The other 11 committees are the standing order committee made up of 19 members, the grounds committee of 15 members, the accreditation and protocol committee of 16 members, the congress committee of 20 members and the feeding committee of seven members.

The others are the congress material and logistics committee with a membership of seven, the vetting committee, the electoral committee and the publicity committee, all with seven members each.

The rest are the transport committee made up of nine members, the legal committee with 15 members and the procurement subcommittee made up of five members.

Hit the ground running

Inaugurating the various committees and subcommittee, Mr Nketia said the conveners of the committee were to convene meetings right after their inauguration, during which chairpersons and secretaries would be chosen to steer their affairs.

According to Mr Nketia, affectionately called ‘General Mosquito’, the various inaugurated entities were to hit the ground running in order to ensure that they made the necessary inputs towards the organisation of a successful national delegates’ congress.

The choice of the members of the committees, Mr Asiedu Nketia said, was predicated on their individual sterling qualities which would aggregate into the needed resource to stage a successful congress to position the party to wrest power from the New Patriotic Party (NPP) at the December 2020 polls.

Mr Nketia disclosed that the party would, prior to the main congress, hold its National Youth and Women’s Congress on October 20, 2018 at the Pentecost Convention Centre at Kasoa in the Central Region.

That, he said, was to afford the NDC an opportunity to improve upon its shortfalls in order to stage a successful congress in Accra.

He, therefore, entreated all members of the various committees to commit themselves fully to the tasks they had been given in order to ensure that the main congress went on smoothly.

Vetting

Throwing more light on activities prior to the congress, the National Organiser of the NDC, Mr Kofi Adams, explained that the vetting and election committees had already started working even before they were officially inaugurated due to the need to vet and examine all prospective aspirants prior to the main congress.

He said in order to complete the vetting on time, a schedule to examine aspirants had been outlined.

“The vetting of aspirants will end this weekend. On Thursday, we will vet the aspiring youth and women organisers. On Friday, we will vet all aspiring communication officers, on Saturday we will vet all deputy aspiring national officers, including  all aspiring national organisers and then on Sunday we will vet the aspirants for the treasurer, general secretary and the national chairman slots,” he stated.