2020 elections: Mahama has lost focus – Maurice Ampaw

Maurice Ampaw, a private legal practitioner has suggested that the decision by the flagbearer of the National Democratic Congress, John Dramani Mahama to cut short his campaign in the Bono Region could adversely affect his chances in the upcoming elections.

Maurice Ampaw observed in a Neat FM interview that instead of returning to Accra to hold a press conference on alleged anomalies in the voters register, Mahama could have delegated one of the members of the party to do it.

He says that Mahama is committing three errors with his decision to put his campaign in the Bono Region on hold.

The first mistake according to Maurice Ampaw is that Mahama’s actions could be interpreted as disrespect to the people of Bono Region as they will feel that their votes do not matter to him and the NDC.

Secondly, Ampaw says by choosing to lead the press conference, the implication is that there are no competent people in the NDC to address the issue aside the flagbearer. He wondered why Minority Leader Haruna Idrissu was not given the chance to hold the presser.

The third blunder being committed by the NDC in the wisdom of Ampaw is that Mahama is pitting the party members against the EC with his persistent criticism of the commission.

He stated this could lead to some members conceding to the notion that elections will be rigged irrespective of the effort and resources they commit.

He described as useless the press conference and said it will make no impact.

“Are they saying they don’t have people who can deal with the issues regard the elections? Can’t someone speak while Mahama is doing the campaign? You leave the campaign to attack the referee. The referee who will handle the match, you are calling it incompetent. Indirectly you are telling the supporters that you’ve lost. The morale of the supporters is that you’ve given up because there’s an agenda against you so no matter what you, you’ll lose”.

“What kind of leadership is this?. He has lost focus. I have never seen something like this. You are in Bono and people have prepared themselves to meet and you leave them. Don’t you have competent people in the NDC to address the EC issue?, he quizzed".

Already some allegations made by John Mahama and the NDC regarding the ongoing voter exhibition exercise have been rejected by the Electoral Commission.

The EC insisted in a statement that there is not deliberate plan to disenfranchise some Ghanaians.