Baani Abudu Nelson, Member of Parliament for Daboya/Mankarigu
The erstwhile Member of Parliament for Daboya/Mankarigu constituency, Baani Abudu Nelson has disclosed that he lost the 2016 parliamentary election on principle.
He said his desire to reclaim the "lost seat" is to consolidate the many gains he made whilst serving as legislator of the constituency: gains in health, infrastructure, education, youth and women empowerment which have since been truncated.
The former legislator who is seeking to go back to parliament on the ticket of the NDC filed his nomination forms days ago heralded by an enthusiastic crowd of party supporters.
According to him, the discredited 2016 biometric register of the party offered an opportunity for some candidates to manipulate the parliamentary primaries to their undue advantage.
The party's biometric register which sought to capture about 1.5 million of members in his view, created a safe haven for his contenders to register non-NDC members. And that, he respected and rather empowered the party leadership in the constituency to register true party members at his own "unforeseen detriment", adding that," I lost on principle ".
He said the top echelon of the party vindicated his position by discrediting the register as giving a misleading impression of the party's true strength in some branches and constituencies as some of the aspirants registered non-NDC members in their bid to win at all cost and by all means.
He holds the strong conviction that, the party's decision to adopt the manual register after the "humiliating" defeat in the 2016 elections for the lack of integrity and credibility of the biometric register offers a level playing field for the true game to commence on the ground.
In terms of numbers, he said the party won with a margin of over 2,000 votes in the 2012 elections when he was the candidate, but in 2016, even with power, the candidate won with only 650 votes.
The party thus, needs a more viable candidate who is appealing to all the political divides to retain the seat and increase the votes.
Ahead of the NDC parliamentary primaries, Nelson Baani Abudu who is in the race with other contenders to represent the NDC in the Daboya/Mankarigu constituency in the 2020 elections believes he is the best candidate to perform the magic for the party.
