{"id":384911,"date":"2017-12-20T21:21:42","date_gmt":"2017-12-20T21:21:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=384911"},"modified":"2017-12-20T21:23:29","modified_gmt":"2017-12-20T21:23:29","slug":"ricketts-hagan-to-vie-for-ndc-flagbearship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2017\/12\/ricketts-hagan-to-vie-for-ndc-flagbearship\/","title":{"rendered":"Ricketts-Hagan to vie for NDC flagbearship"},"content":{"rendered":"
National Democratic Congress (NDC) Member of Parliament for Cape Coast South, Kwaku Rickets-Hagan, has announced his intention to contest the party’s flagbearership slot ahead of the elections in 2020.<\/p>\n
Speaking to Citi News<\/strong>‘\u00a0<\/strong>Duke Mensah Opoku\u00a0today [Wednesday] in Parliament, Ricketts Hagan said a lot of thought had gone into his decision to contest.<\/p>\n [contextly_sidebar id=”LYE0bAINBSsDLLWHQBI8oX4AOS1JCf8X”]”It’s not a decision that is taken lightly to run as the flagbearer of your party, and possibly becoming the Head of State of the country. It’s not a decision that I took yesterday or last week,” he said.<\/p>\n The former Central Regional Minister added that, despite the fact that a number of persons have already announced their intention to contest for the position, he had taken a number of things into consideration before making a decision.<\/p>\n According to him, he first considered contesting the\u00a0position after the incumbent NDC government at the time suffered a major loss in both the presidential and parliamentary elections in 2016.<\/p>\n He however stated that he would not pull out of any race should another candidate throw their hat into the race, as some other aspirants have suggested.<\/p>\n “It’s something I’ve been thinking of for about a year since we lost the elections. I had to do a serious introspection of why we lost the elections and of myself. Others announced their decision to contest almost a year ago, and have basically been campaigning. For me, if I take decisions, they are taken seriously.<\/p>\n “When I take a decision, I’m prepared to see it through to the end. It’s not about who is coming and who is not [contesting]. Next year, we’re going to have our elections, and if you are going to be a serious candidate, you should be ready by the beginning of the year. I had to reach a decision before the end of the year, so I will be in serious contention.”<\/p>\n