Eleven members of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) have so far expressed interest in leading the party into the 2020 elections.
They include former President John Dramani Mahama, former Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA), Sylvester Mensah, Dr. Ekwow Spio Garbrah; a former Trade and Industry Minister; Former Vice Chancellor of the University for Professional Studies, Accra (UPSA), Prof. Joshua Alabi, Cape Coast South MP, Kweku Ricketts-Hagan and Goosie Tanoh.
The rest are, Alban Bagbin, Second Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Stephen Atubiga, member of NDC communications team; Elipklim Agbemava, a lawyer; David Doste Kwame Kuwadah; and a banker and oil and gas consultant, Nurideen Iddrisu.
John Mahama presented his letter of intent to contest in the NDC’s presidential primaries today, August 23, 2018.
The letter was presented on his behalf by a delegation led by Ghana’s former US ambassador Daniel Ohene Agyekum.
94 MPs endorse Mahama
Before Mahama’s letter today, some 94 NDC Members of Parliament had already thrown their weight behind him.
They include Nii Lantey Vanderpuye, Inusah Fuseini, and Fiifi Kwetey.
NDC presidential primaries
The NDC has scheduled to hold its presidential primaries on December 7, 2018, and had announced that the presidential hopefuls could start campaigning effective August 2, 2018.
General Secretary of the NDC, Johnson Asiedu Nketia had earlier admonished the aspirants to organize their campaign in a decorous manner devoid of insults and character assassination.
Alban Bagbin had already begun his campaigning in parts of the country.
He was over the weekend in the Volta Region where he met some supports of the NDC.
However, some comments by Alban Bagbin has incurred the wrath of some members of the party following some comments he made against John Mahama and some of his appointees.
While accusing Mahama of being behind the party’s defeat in the 2016 general elections, he also accused him of making some appointments which hurt the fortunes of the party.
Party structures will deal with Bagbin – Asiedu Nketia
General Secretary, Johnson Asiedu Nketia, has however assured that the party will take actions against Alban Bagbin for his seeming “discriminatory utterances.”
“The various structures will look at all these issues and take the appropriate steps… when we talk about structures, some of them will do investigations, [and] some of them will do fact-finding. If there is evidence, some of them will sit on it.”
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By: Godwin Akweiteh Allotey/citinewsroom.com/Ghana
Follow @AlloteyGodwin