Bagbin not sure of Mahama winning

The Member of Parliament for Nadowli Kaleo, Alban Bagbin has said that he doubts if former president John Mahama will win the National Democratic Congress’ primaries to lead the party in the 2020 general elections.
Speaking to Joy News, Mr Bagbin said he believes delegates will choose him to lead the NDC in 2020 and not Mahama or the other contenders.

“We are now going to go out there with our messages and we will give the good people of our party as to which personality and which message they prefer and I believe that by the end of the day, I don’t see His Excellency the former president [Mahama] winning. I don’t see it.”

The NDC after it suffered a serious defeat in the 2016 general elections has been reorganising for what they say will be a massive comeback in 2020.

Even though former President Mahama has not made public his intentions to contest the party’s primaries, some party supporters hope he runs for the position.

Meanwhile other bigwigs in the NDC have expressed their readiness to lead the party.

Current Second Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin; former Greater Accra Regional Chairman of the party, Prof Joshua Alabi and former Trades Minister, Dr Ekow Spio Garbrah are leading the pack of those who have declared their intentions to lead the opposition party.

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The rest are former CEO of the National Health Insurance Authority, Sylvester Mensah and former; MP for La Dadekotopon, Nii Amasa Namoale and Stephen Atubiga.

Mr Bagbin argued that they supported ex-president Mahama when he was in power but it was time for a new face to lead the party.

He said although a survey conducted by the University of Ghana’s Political Science Department shows that the former president has a high approval rating, he foresees that figure will go down before the party’s primaries which will lead to another defeat for him.

“We were under him, he was the first gentleman, so he had all of us supporting him 100 percent, so if that support has now reduced to 58 percent, which means that 58 percent of us are now supporting him, that is good news for us [the aspirants].”

“It means as we go along, that will still be ebbing away and it is most likely that by the time we get to the national primaries, it would have reduced to something below…I see myself as the winner.”

He added that the low turnout during election 2016 in areas seen as the party’s stronghold showed that supporters had rejected former president Mahama.

“Look at the turnout in Volta Region; the lowest ever…Upper West, Northern, Brong Ahafo Regions, these are sometimes very supportive of the NDC anytime we did something good.”

Mr Bagbin was quick to add that if Mahama wins, “we will have to go together and I will give him 100 percent of my support but I don’t see him winning at the end of the day.”