President Nana Akufo-Addo has filed his nomination forms to contest in the New Patriotic Party’s (NPP) presidential elections slated on April 25, 2020.
He is expected to contest unopposed as he was the only one to have picked forms and submitted same as at Thursday, February 20, 2020; the deadline for filing of nominations.
The President after delivering the State of the Nation Address in Parliament on Thursday moved to the party’s headquarters at Asylum Down in Accra to submit the forms.
He was welcomed by a cheerful crowd of supports clad in party colours.
His forms were received by the Chairman of the party, Freddie Blay with other national executives of the party present.
In line with the Party’s Constitution and subsequent Rules and Regulations for the upcoming primaries, the President, being the sole contestant, will be acclaimed as the party’s 2020 flagbearer at a National Congress to be held simultaneously across the country on April 25, 2020.
President Akufo-Addo while addressing the teeming crowd of supporters urged them to avoid strife and acrimony.
He said supporters of the party must go all out and participate in the voter registration exercise in order not to be disenfranchised on the day of elections.
“Encourage all those legible to come and register. If you don’t do that and it’s time for elections, you will not be allowed to vote. Secondly, we are going to elect our parliamentary candidates on 25th April, I’m appealing to you to do that peacefully so that there is no strife or acrimony to disturb the party,” he said.
‘Mahama will take Ghana backwards’
President Akufo-Addo also chided John Mahama, telling the party faithful that former president John Mahama’s second term bid is only to come and reverse the gains the country has made.
“Someone said the work he started is uncompleted and so he wants to come back and continue. Let’s ask Ghanaians, what work did he do? During his time, everything was in reverse. He is coming back to take us backward but no, we will go forward and not backwards… We will not make that mistake. To date, we’ve not heard any policy from him. 7th December, we will go with our strength and unity to do more than what we did in the 2016 elections. You are the hope of Ghanaians. My plea is simple, help me so that Ghanaians can get 4More 4Nana, 4More to do More,” he added.
If the President is endorsed by the delegates, he will face former president John Mahama, flagbearer of the largest opposition party in the country, the National Democratic Congress (NDC).
John Mahama is seeking a comeback after losing the presidential seat to a second-time contestant, Nana Akufo-Addo in the 2016 elections.
While Akufo-Addo polled 5,755,758 votes representing 53.7% of the total valid votes cast, John Mahama polled 4,771,188 votes representing 44.5%.
