Select running mate before end of 2015 – NDC to Mahama

The National Executive of the National Democratic Congress is urging President John Mahama to select a running mate for the 2016 election before the close of 2015.

According to the party, an early announcement of a running mate alongside a manifesto will help them to put into full motion their campaign at the beginning of 2016 to retain power.

[contextly_sidebar id=”LC5KvZgimzG1gq8AaLn6AUy9FgCnd28X”]Their call comes on the back of the endorsement of President Mahama as the party’s presidential candidate for the 2016 election by members of the NDC over the weekend.

95 percent of those who voted in the primaries endorsed President Mahama as the  presidential candidate for 2016.

Speaking to the media on Tuesday, General Secretary of the NDC, Johnson Asiedu Nketia said appointing a running mate before end of the year will enable the party “prepare ourselves for the elections in 2016.”

“In the days ahead, we have the following activities to conduct, hopefully before the end of the year. Number one, we will move as expeditiously as possible to conduct the last batch of six parliamentary primaries and two the selection of our running mate and the outdooring of all our candidates. The party will strongly advise his Excellency the president to trigger the process of making our running mate known so that we can prepare ourselves for the elections in 2016. Again the final one would have to do with the launch of our 2016 manifesto,” he said.

He explained that the NDC’s constitution gives the presidential candidate the prerogative to select his running mate in consultation with the party.

“According to our rules, it is our leader who initiates the process, he will do the nomination and begin the consultation process; consulting the party headquarters, Council of Elders and then bring out the nominee for acceptance. Once the nominee is accepted then he is outdoored. We ought to finish this process of filling our slates by completing our parliamentary and presidential primaries. Getting our running mate and then getting our manifesto launched then the rest will be coasting down to victory,” Asiedu Nketia added.

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By: Godwin A. Allotey/citifmonline.com/Ghana

Follow @AlloteyGodwin