A presidential hopeful, Sylvester Mensah has officially declared his intention to contest the presidential primaries of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) in the next election in 2020.
Sylvester Mensah in a letter addressed to the leadership of the NDC and sighted by citinewsroom.com said he took the decision after engaging in a nation-wide consultation.
“Having engaged in a nation-wide consultation on the future leadership of our dear party, I am able to confirm that I would be contesting for the vacant position of a flagbearer for our dear party, the National Democratic Congress.”
“It is my conviction that this communication satisfies the initial requirement of notification of intent to the party,” Mr. Mensah, who once served as CEO for the National Health Insurance Authority added in the letter.
The NDC has opened nominations for its vacant presidential candidate slot.
It has also scheduled election for the position on December 7, 2018 ahead of the 2020 general elections.
NDC presidential race
So far, former Trades Minister, Spio Garbrah, MP for Nadowli-Kaleo, Alban Bagbin, Joshua Alabi have so far given indications they will contest for NDC’s presidential candidate position.
Former President, John Dramani Mahama is however tightlipped over his presidential ambitions with an excuse that he wants to focus on the party’s restructuring and healing process to make the NDC a stronger force in the elections 2020.
94 NDC MPs endorse Mahama
Ahead of the party’s presidential election, 94 NDC Members of Parliament out of 106 have reportedly endorsed John Dramani Mahama to lead the party in the 2020 elections.
According to the leader of the 94 MPs, Edwin Nii Lantey Vandapuye, John Mahama is the only candidate who can lead the party to victory in the next polls.
“I can tell you that we have 94 MPs who have faithfully and critically endorsed our former President, John Mahama, to be the candidate once again. This excludes our leaders. The grassroots of this country, the majority of Ghanaians are crying for John Dramani Mahama and as such it will be wicked on our part not to listen to the plea and cries of Ghanaians by giving them who they prefer. So we are bringing back John Dramani Mahama and we are very sure in our minds that Ghanaians will this time accept him and overwhelmingly vote for him to become the next president in Ghana in 2021,” he added.
Produce the list of NDC MPs who endorsed Mahama
Meanwhile, an NDC flagbearer hopeful, Joshua Alabi, is livid over the endorsement.
A former NDC MP, who’s in the camp of Mr. Alabi, Nii Amasah Namoale, questioned the move and insisted that the purported list must be made public to ascertain its authenticity.
“They should publish the names of those MPs because I am hearing some MPs are denying that they have not signed anything yet their names are on the lists,” Mr. Namoale said on Eyewitness News on Tuesday.
‘I will be NDC Flagbearer by January 2019’
Sylvester Mensah had expressed hope of becoming the next presidential candidate of the NDC.
He stated emphatically that by January 2019 after the NDC presidential primaries, he would have been elected as the new Flagbearer of the party.
“The mood in the party today is for change, change has occurred throughout the constituency elections, we expect to see a lot more changes in our regional elections and a lot more at the National elections and then we will be plunging into the Presidential primaries. I will be happy to meet with you sometime in January when I will be flagbearer of the NDC and have a chat with you about the visioned future of the country,” he told the host of Citi TV’s Face to Face Godfred Akoto last week.
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By: Godwin Akweiteh Allotey/citinewsroom.com/Ghana
Follow @AlloteyGodwin
