61k ‘NO’ votes expected – Mahama

President John Dramani Mahama is unfazed by the over 61,000 ‘NO’ votes he had in the just ended National Democratic Congress (NDC) presidential and parliamentary primaries.

Using electricity as an analogy, Mahama said the positive and negative poles are vital in producing power, and one cannot do without the other.

Mahama received an overwhelming 95% endorsement, having polled 1,199,118 'Yes' votes representing 95.10%.

Out of the over two million party members expected to cast their votes, 61,836 voted 'No' representing 4.90% in relation to President Mahama’s candidature in 265 out of 275 constituencies.

In his victory speech at the NDC headquarters, Sunday night, Mahama said: “I wish to thank those who voted ‘yes’ to endorse my candidature, but I also wish those who voted ‘no’ either in error or deliberately because in the order of nature it is the interaction of agreement and dissent that creates human progress.” He added: “You can’t produce energy or electric power with only the positive pole. You need the positive pole and negative pole to produce power. It takes tolerance to accommodate dissent.”

However, Mahama noted he feels “deeply honoured for being endorsed by you as your presidential candidate for the 2016 elections. You lift me up and give me strength. I thank you for the confidence reposed in me. I will focus on the needs of the Ghanaian people."

Mahama is seeking a second term, having won the 2012 presidential elections following the death of then President John Evans Atta Mills.

Mahama’s main contender in next year’s crucial general elections is the flagbearer of the largest opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.

It will be the second time the two political heavyweights will engage in a showdown since Mahama defeated the former Attorney General in a keenly contested polls which ended up being validated by the Supreme Court of Ghana after eight months of legal tussle.