{"id":593806,"date":"2019-02-23T11:14:45","date_gmt":"2019-02-23T11:14:45","guid":{"rendered":"
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Director for Ghana Centre for Democratic Development (CDD) has said the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) is better off not making form"},"modified":"2019-02-23T11:14:45","modified_gmt":"2019-02-23T11:14:45","slug":"ndc-better-off-in-2020-without-mahama-h-kwasi-prempeh","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2019\/02\/23\/ndc-better-off-in-2020-without-mahama-h-kwasi-prempeh\/","title":{"rendered":"NDC better off in 2020 without Mahama \u2013 H. Kwasi Prempeh"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Director for Ghana Centre for Democratic Development (CDD) has said the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) is better off not making former President John Mahama flagbearer in Saturday\u2019s presidential primaries.<\/span><\/p>\n

Prof H. Kwasi Prempeh <\/span>believes<\/span><\/span> the opposition party stands a better chance of ousting the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) in\u00a02020\u00a0if NDC delegates elect a new candidate instead of bringing back the man who represented the NDC in 2016 but lost.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cA party has a free will and choice to choose who it wants to elect as flagbearer. I particularly find it a bit mind-boggling that the NDC is in this position. I also share the sense that John Mahama is going to prevail in the primaries but I don\u2019t know if that is best for the party\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201dI think the NPP clearly will prefer that John Mahama be the candidate and for good reason. I think the NDC would have done themselves a lot of good they had looked elsewhere. But that is the NDC,\u201d the law professor and renowned governance expert said on Joy FM\/MultiTV news analysis programme Newsfile<\/b> on Saturday.<\/span><\/p>\n

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CDD Director, Prof. H Kwasi Prempeh<\/span><\/b><\/i><\/p>\n

Former President John Mahama, then flag bearer of the NDC, lost by more than 9% of total votes to the NPP\u2019s Nana Akufo-Addo.<\/p>\n

Akufo-Addo obtained a staggering 5,716,609 of total votes cast in the 2016 elections, representing 53.84%, to snatch the Presidency from John Mahama, who secured 4,713,277 votes (44.40%). The NDC also lost more than 40 parliamentary seats to the NPP.<\/p>\n

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NDC\u2019s performance at last year\u2019s polls is its worst since 1992.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would be surprised if he [John Mahama] didn\u2019t harbour the desire to come back. But what surprise me is that if you weigh all the factors, good reason, in my view, will counsel against the NDC itself, not John Mahama, but the NDC itself allowing that to happen,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) says it wants former President John Mahama to win so he\u00a0goes face to face with President Akufo-Addo\u2019s record in office.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Information Minister, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, said on Newsfile, Saturday that the governing party will win the 2020\u00a0polls much easier if John Mahama is on the ticket of the NDC.<\/p>\n

NDC presidential primaries<\/b><\/p>\n

NDC, Ghana\u2019s largest opposition party, will Saturday elect its 2020 flagbearer as it attempts to cut short its stay in opposition since 2017. The party\u00a0is seeking to find one out of seven candidates whom they believe will hold the most convincing sway over voters come the 2020 general elections.<\/p>\n

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They are former president John Mahama, Second Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Alban Kingsford Sumani Bagbin,\u00a0former Minister of Trade and Industry, Mr Ekwow Spio-Garbrah, former Vice Chancellor of University of Professional Studies, Accra (UPSA), Prof. Joshua Alabi.<\/p>\n

\"NDC<\/p>\n

There are also\u00a0former Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA), Mr Sylvester Mensah, a cadre, Mr Goosie Tanoh and businessman, Alhaji Nurideen Iddrisu.<\/p>\n

The party is using the most exhaustive electoral process ever\u00a0seen in any political party with nearly 280,000 delegates across all 275 constituencies expected to cast their ballot.<\/p>\n

All branch executives, constituency executives, regional executives, regional council of elders, MPs, former government appointees and founding members will have their say in Ghana\u2019s most novel internal party primary.<\/p>\n

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