An executive member of the Tema East branch of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), Stephen Ashitey Adjei popularly known as “Mo Shake”, has decried a wave of power play in the party’s build up to the election of various executives.

He said with various personalities angling for the flagbearership in 2020, there is a vicious chess game, in which the wannabes are sponsoring loyalists to step up and contest for various executive positions so that when it is time for the election of flagbearer, these personalities can fall on them as support base.

“Ordinarily, there is nothing wrong with strategically building a support base for yourself in the party, but the way they are going about it is appalling. They are pitching against one another and causing unnecessary divisions and tensions in the party,” Mr Ashitey Adjei lamented.

The Tema East NDC Executive Member who was speaking to journalists at the Tema said the vicious jostle is leading to the creation of wholesale enmity among party members across the country to the extent that NDC members are threatening fellow NDC members to murderous extreme.

“I know of people who have received text messages from their own friends cursing them because such friends have advised their standing for positions that they are ill-fitted for!” he said.

The worried Tema East executive member called on the leadership of the party to bring the various flagbearer aspirants and their camps to order, pointing out that the enmity being created among executives would end up hurting the party as a whole.

He said the jostle for loyalists to come into positions in the party so that during the flagbearership race, they could be fallen on for votes was tantamount to putting square pegs in round holes.

“In the case of a particularly rich camp which has money to elbow its way around, even people who are not interested in becoming executives of the party are being threatened and cajoled to step up for such positions. But political party administration is a matter of brains, not emotions” Moshake said.

He called for a cessation of the jostling, saying, it was in the interest of the NDC to let the tenets of democracy prevail and NDC had more pressing issues to attend to and should therefore eschew in-house wranglings.

“We need to tackle the apathy among our supporters and grassroots that led to our humiliating defeat in 2016. The NPP government has served notice of intent to go after some of our colleagues, it will be more helpful to use our time to prepare a support system for such victims, rather than use it to attack ourselves.”

Moshake pointed out that the underlying factors that led to the defeat of the NDC in 2016 were still present and that the party would do itself a lot of good if it channeled its attention and energies to such issues.

He said one issue was the poor flow of communication between the various parts of the party’s administrative hierarchy which leads to suspicion and bitterness among the rank and file of the party.

“If even, something as trivial as sharing Christmas rice causes suspicion because of the lack of open communication, then the party will be better off addressing its mind to such issues rather than the unnecessary power play in the party,” Moshake said.