I'II represent NPP as candidate in 2020 with great confidence - Akufo-Addo

President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo says he will only contest the 2020 polls if only he is allowed to do so by the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP). He was responding to a question asked by a journalist.

“If at the end of the day, the NPP decides they want to renew my flagbearership and to go the country, I will do so and I will do so with a great deal of confidence.”

President Nana Akufo-Addo added: “I do not have a difficulty facing the Ghanaian people. I have been trying to do so all my life in various degrees of success and I do not have any difficulty, and especially with the opportunity that has been given me to serve them in this capacity.’’

On the issue of whether he was enjoying incumbency advantage, the president responded saying: “As far as the issue of incumbency is concerned, it should never be an advantage in a proper functioning democracy because the process should be sufficiently transparent. The voice of the people at any one stage will be kept through. It cannot be because incumbency advantage is in an advanced stage then it means the electoral plain field is being distorted or engineered to favour incumbency. That should never be the case. The only advantage you can have if you are in government is the quality of your performance.”

He added that “if the performance [of a government] is good and the people feel it is worth endorsing for another round, they will do so. If they feel that the performance is poor and it is not worth endorsing, they will destool you so there should be no issue that incumbency is an advantage. Incumbency can only be an advantage in a situation where it means that some distortion, some unfair, some untoward advantage is being gained by the fact that you are in office.”

Acting General Secretary of the ruling NPP, John Boadu on Tuesday told Accra based Joy FM that, it will be extremely strange for any party member to contest Nana Addo in 2020.

‘’If any other person also put in application- which would be strange considering the performance he has put up only in one year; the kind of things he has done in one year, by that time; even other opponents of the party may not put in an application to contest him. How much more internally?’’