Update: Spio mandates campaign team member to pick up forms

Latest information reaching the New Statesman is that Dr. Ekwow Spio Garbrah has mandated a member of his campaign team to pick up presidential nomination forms on his behalf to beat the deadline set by national executives of the National Democratic Congress, which is tomorrow 9th May 2011.

The New Statesmen, in Monday’s edition, reported that Ekwow Spio-Garbrah, Vice Chairman of the NDC and CEO of the Commonwealth Telecommunications Organization, London, may soon resign his lucrative London post to pick up his presidential nomination forms for the July contest.

This move by Spio will finally put to rest the lingering doubts and issues raised as to whether or not he was going to contest President Mills and Nana Konadu, for the vacant NDC 2012 Presidential Candidate slot.

With his challenge seeming increasingly a done deal, both the Rawlings and Mills camps may now have another loud-mouthed, internationally connected and financially resourced challenger to deal with.

Reacting on Monday to New Statesman's report of his intended move on Joy FM, the former Education and Communications minister declined to confirm or deny the report but indicated that he would be releasing a statement on Tuesday morning which would outline his position on the reports.

“It would be a statement regarding the upcoming July NDC congress. Of course as you can imagine, many people have called me from all over the world and all over Ghana asking what my position is, what my intentions are, what do I plan to do,” Spio said.

Senior NDC politicians from the Volta region, wealthy Fanti and Kumasi businessmen and NDC financiers in London, US and Canada are said to be behind Spio's potential bid

Other likely sponsors of Spio, according to our source, are “disgruntled wealthy Ghanaian business leaders who believe that while President Atta-Mills may have failed in achieving his 'Better Ghana Agenda,' former First Lady Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings, even if she wins the NDC primary will be unelectable nationally.”

To quote another deep source in the belly of the Spio camp, "President Mills has lost the support of the Founder and the rank and file of the NDC. But, Mrs Rawlings cannot win a national election in Ghana even if she beats Mills at Congress. We need a third force, and that’s where Spio comes in."

Dramatically brushed aside by President Atta-Mills, for whom Spio reportedly raised billions of old cedis to support in 1996, 2000, 2004 and 2008, the former Communications Minister has not had any luck with the Rawlingses either, although he has publicly and notably defended them from 2009, during a period when it became very unadvisable for an NDC guru to defend the Founder and his wife.

The Rawlingses won't support Atta-Mills even if he wins, and Atta-Mills/Ahwoi won't support Mrs Rawlings even if she beats them. Either way, the NPP's Nana Akufo-Addo will be the eventual beneficiary of the internecine battle within the NDC.