‘Some of our delegates were illiterates’

The Communication Director of the ruling National Democratic Congress, Solomon Nkansah has attributed the significant number of ‘No Votes’ recorded in the party’s presidential primary to reasons of illiteracy on the part of some of the delegates.

The ruling party has been struggling hard to assign reasons for the politically-significant 5% delegates’ population that voted against the second term bid of the President and sole candidate for the flagbearer slot of the party.

Solomon Nkansah in desperate attempts to downplay the impact of the over 60,000 votes which went against President Mahama’s candidature, said some of the delegates who cast their ballots during weekend primaries did not have enough understanding of the ramifications of voting No as indicated on the ballot paper.

“Some people were made to believe that voting No represented voting against Nana Addo; this was as a result of strong campaign embarked upon by our opponents and you know because some of our delegates lack the education, they bought into it,” Solomon Nkansah stated in an interview on HELLO FM in Kumasi yesterday.

He said besides that, the infiltration by supporters of the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP), whom he described as ‘wolves’ also played key role in the number of No votes recorded during the primary.

The NDC Communication Director was emphatic illiteracy on the part of some of the delegates was a major factor in the upset recorded, stressing that some of the supporters thought they were actually voting against Nana Akufo Addo when they thumb printed on the ‘NO’ box.

“Prior to the voting day we heard reports that some people were going round telling party supporters that if you thumbprint NO, it means you are rejecting Nana Addo. We tried to defuse that impression but I think it was too late for us to reach all areas and that is the reason why we recorded such numbers.”