Some 1.1 million members of the incumbent National Democratic Congress (NDC), who voted in the party’s Saturday’s presidential primaries, have endorsed the candidature of President John Dramani Mahama to lead the NDC in the 2016 General elections.
The figure represents the view of 95.10% of NDC members who participated in the ‘yes’ and ‘no’ vote.
Originally, voting should have taken place in all 275 constituencies, but according to the Electoral Commission’s Director of Elections, Samuel Tettey, who announced the results, the results came from 265 constituencies.
[contextly_sidebar id=”ry0YU72GAHuIhMSHFlS05eMiB6mHNaqa”]This obviously is as a result of the failure of the party to hold the primaries in some disputed constituencies.
According to the EC’s Samuel Tettey, those who voted ‘yes’ were 1,199,118 representing 95.10% of the total votes cast, whiles those who voted No were 61,836 representing 4.9% of the votes cast.
The total valid votes were 1,260,954 with total rejected votes being 25,774 representing 2% of the total votes cast.
Per the NDC’s Constitution, a presidential candidate needed 50%+1 votes to lead the party. But the decision of the NDC to expand its electoral college means that the percentage is now higher.
Although John Mahama had no contender the party opted to vote yes and no rather than endorsing him by popular acclamation as was done in the past.
President Mahama in acknowledging the acceptance thanked all party members for supporting his candidature describing the endorsement as overwhelming.
He said the NDC’s new process of choosing its parliamentary and presidential candidates is commendable and much better than the previous approach where the decision was limited to a few people.
“I wish to thank those who voted YES to endorse my candidature. NDC is a party of peace, unity and democracy. I congratulate all party members who participated in this election. As a leader of the party, I believe not all members are pleased with some of my decisions. I feel humbled by the overwhelming endorsement I have received from the NDC and I accept the responsibility to lead the party to victory in 2016.”
By this endorsement, President John Mahama is set to seek a second term bid against the New Patriotic Party’s Presidential Candidate Nana Akufo-Addo.
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By: Ebenezer Afanyi Dadzie/citifmonline.com/Ghana