Mahama can’t win power - Bagbin

Second Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin, says no matter what the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) will do to favour former President John Dramani Mahama ahead of the party’s presidential primaries, the latter cannot win power for the party in 2020.

Speaking with Agoo FM in Accra, the Nadowli Kaleo lawmaker, who is a flag-bearer hopeful of the NDC, said the party cannot win the 2020 general election with Mahama as its flag-bearer.

“If I was convinced that the former president could win power for the NDC, I wouldn’t have come up contesting,” Mr Bagbin said.

“I am still convinced and sure that whatever they (NEC) do with him as leader NDC cannot win 2020,” Mr Bagbin averred.

His comments come on the back of claims that the NDC executives were skewing the presidential primary contest to favour Mr Mahama by pegging the filing fee at GHC400,000.

Nine of the flag-bearer hopefuls including Bagbin have petitioned the NDC Council of Elders to intervene, describing the fee as unreasonable.

They specifically accused the General Secretary of the party, Johnson Asiedu Nketia, of masterminding the figure.

Mr Nketia was on record to have declared his support for the candidature of former President Mahama in the race.

The flag-bearer hopefuls’ petition to the elders states: “the amount does not reflect the social democratic ideals of the party and must be reviewed.”

The NDC was yet to receive its copy of the petition, according to Mr Nketia, and as such it will continue with the process.

“We have heard complaints from some of the candidates and some other concerned members of the party. We have also heard about a petition that I’m told is circulating,” he told journalists.

“We want to indicate,” he continued, “that at the level of the national executives we have not seen that petition yet. And so we are unable to act or restrain our action based on a petition that is circulating somewhere in the media.”