Pressure mounts on Prez. Mahama to name running mate

• Posted on November 25, 2015
• by Nana Kwesi Coomson
• Comment

The National Democratic Congress (NDC) has tasked President John Dramani Mahama to name a running mate for the 2016 general elections before the close of 2015.

The party says early announcement of a running mate alongside a manifesto would help it to start the process to retain power in 2016.

Speaking to journalists yesterday after the party’s weekend parliamentary and presidential primaries, NDC General Secretary, Johnson Asiedu Nketia aka General Mosquito, said selecting a running mate before the end of the year would enable the party “prepare ourselves for the elections in 2016.”

There are strong indications that Vice President Paa Kwesi Amissah-Arthur would be retained for the 2016 polls, even though there are dissenting voices for his displacement, in order to have a succession plan in place in the event that the NDC wins the coming elections.

“The party will strongly advise his Excellency the President to trigger the process of making our running mate known so that we can prepare ourselves for the elections in 2016,” Mr Asiedu Nketia said.
He explained that the NDC’s constitution gives the presidential candidate the prerogative to select his running mate in consultation with the party.

“According to our rules, it is our leader who initiates the process; he will do the nomination and begin the consultation process – consulting the party headquarters, Council of Elders and then bring out the nominee for acceptance. Once the nominee is accepted then he is outdoored. We ought to finish this process of filling our slates by completing our parliamentary and presidential primaries. Getting our running mate and then getting our manifesto launched then the rest will be coasting down to victory,” Asiedu Nketia posited.

‘No’ Votes

President Mahama was endorsed by the NDC delegates for the 2016 elections, garnering 95 percent of ‘Yes’ votes.

Despite the massive endorsement, some social media patrons have been ridiculing the president after 61,836 voted ‘No’,   representing 4.8 percent of total votes cast. Those who voted ‘No’ were averse to the president being endorsed as the standard bearer of the party for next year’s elections.

Interestingly, his home region, the Northern Region, recorded the highest ‘No’ votes of 10,190, with his hometown of Bole ‘honouring’ him with 990 ‘No’ votes. Sawla Tuna Kalba, which used to be part of the Bole constituency, also gave President Mahama 1,084 ‘No’ votes.

A DAILY GUIDE Report