TESCON suspends all party activities until mysterious injunction is revealed
Aggrieved members of the student wing of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), the Tertiary Students Confederacy (TESCON) has suspended all its campus activities in protest of the disenfranchisement of its members during the recently held national delegates conference of the party.
All 291 TESCON presidents across the country were not given the opportunity to vote due to a court injunction a night before the election, but the group was not satisfied with the decision.
They have thus petitioned the leadership of the NPP over their exclusion from the voting process.
In a statement, the President of the group said the decision to bar them from the polls was deliberate.
“[NPP leadership] does not recognize us as the intellectual wing as it has always been professed by the party because for you to bus intellectuals from various regions for them to travel miles to the capital city of the country, risking their lives just to disenfranchise them without any reason is just disheartening,” portions of the statement read.
They are asking for the true identity of the petitioner who secured the injunction and on what basis.
“Until we see the said injunction, the one who placed the injunction and the reason for the injunction and also give us positive assurance to settle as soon as possible the ambiguity on TESCON Representations during Regional and National Conferences in the next Annual National Delegates Conference otherwise we will advice ourselves accordingly,” the statement emphasized.
The message was copied to President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, the Chief of Staff and the NPP’s General Secretary and National Chairman.
Also served were all 16 Regional Chairmen, Regional Youth Organizers, the National TESCON Coordinator and all 16 Regional TESCON Coordinators.
Here is the full petition:
Article 10(2)(g) of the NPP Constitution makes one representative from every recognised TESCON institution a delegate at the Annual Delegates Conference of the New Patriotic Party but it seems the party deliberately didn’t recognise us as part of the Conference.
2. Allocation of stands was made for all delegates with the exception of TESCON at Accra sports stadium which clearly indicates that the party did not factor in us and never value us in the planning of the whole event.
3. We were lodged at Anagkazo in the Eastern Region without allocation of rooms to our TESCON delegates from the Greater Accra region, they slept outside and others in cars until the next morning for us to come to the stadium and be told an injunction has been placed on TESCON and for that matter we will not be allowed to vote.
Delegates from the Ashanti Region were given 45 accreditations instead of 174 Accreditations for the Presidents, Nasara Coordinators and the Women Commissioners (58each) and with Greater Accra 23 accreditations were given instead of 144 and this is similar to all the other regions.
4. We the 291 TESCON Presidents across the country believe that the Leadership of the New Patriotic Party do not have the interest of TESCON at heart and does not recognise us as the intellectual wing as it has always been professed by the party because for you to bus intellectuals from various regions for them to travel miles to the capital city of the country, risking their lives just to disenfranchise them without any reason is just disheartening.
5. On this note, we the 291 TESCON Presidents in Ghana have concluded to suspend all activities of TESCON on our various campuses till further notice which includes, general meetings, programs, elections, handing overs, etc until we see the said injunction, the one who placed the injunction and the reason for the injunction and also give us positive assurance to settle as soon as possible the ambiguity on TESCON Representations during Regional and National Conferences in the next Annual National Delegates Conference otherwise we will advise ourselves accordingly.
