Sidelining George Boateng for Mahama to go unopposed undemocratic –Amidu

One of the founding members of the incumbent National Democratic Congress (NDC) Martin Amidu has described as undemocratic the decision to allow President John Dramani Mahama to contest as a sole candidate to lead the party in the 2016 general elections.

Mr. Amidu in an interview with Citi News’ Pius Amihere Aduku in the Madina Constituency where he had voted in Saturday’s primaries to elect parliamentary candidates and also to endorse the candidature of President Mahama said he dislikes a ballot paper which has just one person on it.
Mr. Amidu, a former Attorney General who is viewed as a zealous critic of the government, condemned the sidelining of one George Boateng, who sought to contest against President Mahama.
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Mr. George Boateng, the NDC’s Oyarifa Branch Youth Organizer, could not achieve his dream of contesting against Mahama after he was branded to be mentally derailed by some influential members of the NDC, following his utterances.
After picking nominations forms from the party headquarters to contest the primary, the party’s General Secretary Mr. Johnson Asiedu Nketia said Mr. Boateng’s forms had been wrongfully acquired and that the party could not receive it.
Party officers who sold the forms to him were eventually penalized for supposedly not following due procedures.
But Mr. Martin Amidu says all these were a calculated attempt to prevent anyone from contesting President Mahama, describing it an undemocratic act for a party that is known to be democratic.
“I have voted and I am expecting that the people’s choice will emerge even if I don’t like it. You know I have told you that I don’t like an Orwellian state. I don’t like a situation where you have only one candidate and then anyone who wants to contest is deemed to be a madman and excluded; it’s not democratic” he stated.

“Unfortunately we are in a democratic state and not in soviet Russia. But I don’t like a ballot on which there is only one candidate; it’s too Orwellian. And then the candidate who wanted to contest they branded him insane just like whatever you challenge in this country they say you are insane; it’s not right; it’s not democratic and that’s why I say Orwellian big brother state. But what my vote is, I keep it to myself” he stated.
Martin Amidu voted in the primary at Madina.
Martin Amidu voted in the primary at Madina.
So far, provisional results from Saturday’s elections have shown that not all members of the NDC are in support of President Mahama’s candidature as some have voted no against him.
Provisional results so far suggests that whiles 41,430 members voted yes to endorse President Mahama’s candidature, some 2,275 others have voted to reject him.
President Mahama is expected to be officially outdoored as the NDC’s candidate for 2016 today [Sunday], as the party awaits the final results of the presidential results from the primaries.
Meanwhile some fourteen constituencies which could not vote yesterday due to some irregularities with the party’s voters’ register, are voting today [Sunday] November 22.