Some concerned National, Regional and Constituency Executives of the Convention Peoples Party (CPP) have asked the Party’s Chairperson to step aside in compliance with the directives of its Central Committee.
It is the case of the executives that Nana Akosua Frimpomaa Sarpong-Kumankumah, at the CPP’s National Congress held in August 2022, “did not garner” the required votes to enable her to become the National Chairman and Leader of the CPP.
Addressing a press conference in Accra on Thursday, June 30, 2022, Mr Koo Mensah Frempong, Greater Accra Regional Secretary, CPP, said the 2020 Congress did not produce a validly elected Chairperson because Nana Sarpong-Kumankumah obtained 43 per cent of the total valid votes cast.
That figure, he argued, was below the 50 per cent or more votes as stipulated in Article 93 of the CPP’s Constitution.
Mr Frempong said the CPP’s Central Committee, at its meeting on the 21st of April 2022, set aside Nana Sarpong-Kumankumah as Chairman and Leader of the Party to pave way for a run-off between the latter and Hajia Hamdatu Ibrahim, who was the 1st runner-up in the 2020 chairmanship race.
He said Mr Onsy Kwame Nkrumah, the First Vice-Chairperson of the CPP, was currently the Acting Chairperson and Leader of the Party in compliance with the CPP’s Constitution.
Mr Frempong said the decision by Nana Sarpong-Kumankumah to continue to hold herself as Leader and Chairperson was an “illegality,” and “cannot be tolerated” by the rank and file of the Party.
“We, the rank and file representing the majority view of the Party want to state that Frimpongmaa is totally out of order and has no capacity to initiate any activity on behalf of the CPP. She should do the needful and agree to step aside,” he said.
Per a provision of Article 93 of the CPP Constitution, “A candidate for election to the office of National Chairperson and Leader shall be deemed to have been duly elected if more than 50 per cent of the members of congress present and voting voted in his favour.
“Where, at the election of the National Chairperson and Leader, there are more than two candidates and no candidate obtains the votes specified in Clause (e) of this article, another election shall be held between the two candidates who obtained the highest number of votes to select the winner.”
Last year, a member of the Party, Mr Isaac Kweku Annan sued the CPP, challenging the legitimacy of Nana Sarpong-Kumankumah as Chairperson of the CPP.
In a suit filed at the Accra High Court, he argued that Nana Sarpong-Kumankomah did not obtain the required number of votes at the 2020 Congress.
Among the reliefs sought by the plaintiff was an order for a declaration that the CPP’s constitution mandates it to declare only a candidate who obtains over 50 votes in an election for the position of chair and leader.
He also prayed the court to declare the CPP’s election held in 2020 as null and void and of no legal effect.
On October 28, 2021, the CPP’s Council of Elders asked the Court to grant it permission to use its office as an organ to resolve the dispute – a request that was granted by the Court.
Among the terms of settlement signed by the plaintiff and the defendant (CPP) was the withdrawal of the claim of the plaintiff against the CPP as to the regularity or otherwise of the election of the Party’s Chairperson and Leader.
Dissatisfied by the Terms of Settlement, Mr Onsy Nkrumah, in March this year, filed a suit also challenging the constitutionality of the chairman position.
He argued that the Chair, Nana Sarpong-Kumankumah did not garner the mandatory 50 per cent +1 vote in the August 22, 2020, elections.
The Court is yet to determine that matter.
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