98 candidates cleared for NDC Nov. primaries

The National Democratic Congress (NDC) has cleared 98 parliamentary aspirants in the Greater Accra Region to contest in the party’s November 7 primaries.

At the end of vetting on Friday, 6 were disqualified while vetting of two others was put on hold.
General Secretary of the party, Johnson Asiedu Nketia said one other person was absent saying “we had conflicting information about the aspirant’s whereabouts.”

“Information from his constituents and his region indicate that he claims he is somewhere in Tamale in the Northern Region and that is the reason why he was not able to be with us yesterday and today. The other information is that he has been picked up by the courts to answer some allegations. So as we sit here we cannot confirm any of these two sources of information,” he added.

Meanwhile President John Dramani Mahama would have to get above 50 percent of total vote cast in the primaries to become the party’s presidential candidate.
According to Johnson Asiedu Nketiah, though president Mahama is going unopposed, members of the party will have to determine whether he should lead them into the 2016 election or not.

In his closing remarks after the two-day vetting of NDC parliamentary aspirants in the Greater Accra Region, Asiedu Nketiah said if President Mahama fails to get more than 50% of the total votes cast, the process would be started all over again.

“We all know that President Mahama may go unopposed. I am saying may go unopposed because we have not finished the procedures and even if he does, the presidential primaries will still take place in which case we will open the polling stations and then the ballot paper will be made like a referendum paper, yes or no.”

He explained that “those who want him [President Mahama] to go will vote yes, the party members who don’t want him to go will vote no. At the end of the day if we are able to get more than 50 percent of NDC members endorsing the president to proceed then he will be declared the NDC [Presidential] candidate.”

“In the event that we are unable to get more than 50 percent endorsing the president’s candidature, then we are back to square one where we will announce the opening of nominations and then new candidates will file and then we will continue,” he said.