General News of Saturday, 23 February 2019
Source: citinewsroom.com
2019-02-23
NDC flagbearer hopeful, Augustus ‘Goosie’ Tanoh
National Democratic Congress (NDC) presidential aspirant, Goosie Tanoh has decried the early declaration of results at some constituencies in the party’s ongoing presidential primaries.
According to him, such conduct has the potential of discouraging delegates who intend to vote for other candidates and create an impression that the other candidates do not stand any chance of winning the polls.
Goosie Tanoh made the comments while speaking to journalists after touring some constituencies in the party’s presidential primaries.
Ahead of the 5 pm official closing time of the polls,
Counting, sorting, and declaration of results was done earlier in some centres, ahead of the 5 pm official close of polls, with former president John Mahama coming far ahead of the six other candidates.
But Goosie Tanoh said the other candidates who appear to be far behind John Mahama are also able to pull many more votes than him at other polling station and so does not believe it is a hopeless situation for other candidates.
“The real issue is the time that they declared it [the results]. You are supposed to declare at 5 pm because then you influence other people who are in the process of voting by suggesting it is a hopeless case for other candidates but we don’t think it is a hopeless case for other candidates. I’m sure you’ll find areas where we also get a margin much bigger than 600,” he said.
He, however, said he believes the party’s headquarters will take up the matter and address it.
“I got a call from a high official of the party who was also very upset that the vote has been declared when indeed it is hours more before closing so I’m not happy…. I believe our head office is handling that issue,” he said.
Despite warnings from the party leadership for results to be declared only after 5 pm, results from constituencies such as Saboba and Chereponi were announced before 5 pm due to an existing 4 pm to 7 am curfew in those areas.
Six of the aspirants prior to the election raised a number of concerns with the process. They petitioned the party on a number of occasions over their concerns.
