NDC primaries: It'll be shocking if Mahama gets less than 85% - Governance lecturer

The largest opposition party, National Democratic Congress (NDC), is scheduled to hold its Presidential and Parliamentary primaries on Saturday, May 13.

The primaries is to elect a Presidential candidate and Parliamentary representatives for the party ahead of the 2024 elections.

Currently, three candidates namely former President John Dramani Mahama, former Minister of Finance, Dr. Kwabena Duffuor and former KMA Mayor, Kojo Bonsu, are vying for the presidential slot.

However, the Electoral Commission has taken the decision not to supervise the NDC elections after concerns were raised by Dr. Duffuor and his team regarding the party's voters' register being infested with errors that, according to them, will cause irreparable damage to their candidate.

Dr. Duffuor has sought for postponement of the elections and the court is yet to decide on whether or not the NDC primaries will come off as scheduled.

At a meeting on Wednesday, May 10, with the Elections Committee of the NDC, the Chairperson of the Electoral Commission, Mrs. Jean Mensa said in order that the EC is not cited for contempt, it has resolved not to go ahead with supervising the primaries.

"Earlier this week, the Commission received a letter from the Kwabena Duffuor Campaign Team alleging various errors and anomalies with the Register. It was based on this, that the Commission felt it necessary to meet with the Elections Committee of the NDC as well as the representatives of the Presidential Aspirants to deliberate on this matter and agree on a way forward.

"That meeting was to have been held today. However, yesterday we were served with an Application for Interlocutory Injunction seeking to restrain the Commission from supervising the conduct of the Presidential and Parliamentary Primaries due to the alleged anomalies with the register," she said.

As the party awaits the court verdict to proceed with the elections or not, Dr. Benjamin Otchere-Ankrah, a Governance Lecturer at the Central University, has made a pick of the candidate to win the NDC Presidential elections.

According to him, he will be utterly shocked if former President John Mahama doesn't emerge victor.

He told host Kwami Sefa Kayi that the two candidates contesting the race stand no chance of winning against Mr. Mahama saying Mr. Kojo Bonsu is "vying for future gains" and for Dr. Duffuor, the delegates will surely vote against him.

Speaking on Peace FM's morning show "Kokrokoo", he said; "I will be shocked if President Mahama gets anything less than 85 percent...He will win with a wide margin."