Editorial by Ghanaian Times: Congratulations to NDC, Mahama, others

On Saturday, the National Democratic Congress (NDC), the biggest opposition political party in the country, held successful presidential and parliamentary primaries.

We first congratulate the NDC on that great feat.

We say great feat because on May 9, just four days before the elections, one of the three flag-bearer hopefuls, Dr. Kwabena Duffour, filed an interlocutory injunction against the elections over questions regarding the credibility of the party’s voter register.

The Electoral Commission (EC) announced that it would not supervise the elections once the injunction was in place.

Some members of the public thought the injunction would derail the elections and cause their postponement, but the party’s National Executive, led by the Chairman, Mr. Johnson Asiedu Nketiah, were unperturbed as they gave firm assurance that the primaries would pass as scheduled.

Then on May 12, 2023, a day to the primaries, Dr. Duffour withdraws the injunction and announces his own withdrawal from the race as well, and assures the whole world that he is going to have the issues he raised resolved internally.

Kudos to Dr. Duffour and the National Executive for their tolerance, understanding and love for party unity that put the matter to rest and gingered the EC to willingly come in to supervise the elections.

We dedicate the NDC victory first to Dr. Duffour, followed by the National Executive and then all others who desired to see it.

Disunity and any other chaos in political parties must be the concern of every citizen because parties have become very important institutions in today’s world as the anchor of democracy.

Every country needs unified and functioning or active political parties as democracy calls for multiplicity of such parties.

This is important because it is such parties that have the potential to form a government, when voted for, to assume the governance of a country.

NDC’s incident-free elections therefore make a feat that shows that the party is not ready to allow any internal wrangling to undermine its focus on taking over the governance of the country via the 2024 Presidential and Parliamentary Elections.

Now, we congratulate former President John Dramani Mahama on winning the flag-bearer slot.

We are happy with his overwhelming 98.9 per cent win; it is more or less a popular acclamation, which speaks volumes of his appeal to party members.

It is now certain his ambition to re-assume the country’s presidency is on course.

What is left is for him is to see how best to achieve that vision.

We know that Mr. Mahama would bring Dr. Duffour and Mr. Kojo Bonsu into his scheme of things and flow with them, but we humbly suggest that it should not take long to do so.

We also congratulate the elected parliamentary hopefuls.

We need not say they will have to align with all that Mr Mahama and the NDC have to do to ensure Victory 2024.

That victory cannot be said to be a done deal because the New Patriotic Party is also poised to retain power to make history as having broken the cycle of eight-year rule that have been alternating between them and the NDC since 1993.

We sympathise with the 17 sitting Members of Parliament who lost the just-ended NDC primaries.

That is democracy at work; better luck next time.