John Mahama. INSET: ABA Fuseini, Della Sowah, Sampson Chiragia, Kwabena Donkor
After losing the 2020 presidential election, the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) has overwhelmingly re-elected former President John Dramani Mahama as their nominee for the 2024 general election.
He polled 297,603, representing 98.9 per cent of the total valid votes cast to defeat his only contender, Kojo Bonsu, who managed to secure 3,181, representing 1.1 per cent.
Mr. Mahama will not challenge current President Nana Akufo-Addo, who has beaten him twice, in next year’s election but, rather a new candidate to be chosen by the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP).
After succeeding his deceased predecessor, former President John Atta Mills, in 2012 and winning the election later in the year, he was defeated in the 2016 election and again in 2020 by President Akufo-Addo.
Vote-Buying
The NDC primaries were marred by vote-buying and other voting irregularities in some constituencies, which are being investigated by the police.
In the Ashanti Region for example, Juliana Kinang-Wassan, one of the parliamentary candidates for the Ejura Sekyedumase Constituency, was seen throwing money at a crowd during the NDC presidential and parliamentary primaries.
“A dedicated legal team is currently scrutinising her conduct in the video to establish whether there are elements of election-related crime to warrant police intervention or otherwise,” the police said in a statement.
Mahama’s Speech
After the final declaration of the polls on Saturday, Mr. Mahama said, “I am humbled by the overwhelming vote of confidence reposed in me by the party.”
He expressed gratitude to God and the party’s delegates for bringing the NDC this far, saying, “In your usual astute manner, you turned up in your numbers, across the country, to vote in our party’s presidential and parliamentary elections.”
He also thanked Dr. Kwabena Duffuor and Mr. Kojo Bonsu for their contest and indicated that their contest in the NDC primary has cemented the party’s “enviable record as the most democratic political tradition in the country,” even though Dr. Duffuor pulled out from the race a day to the primaries, citing election irregularities.
“Let us disagree to agree but let us keep our collective sights firmly on the supreme objective of the NDC leading Ghana out of the current abyss the country is in,” he intimated.
Mr. Mahama also asked for cooperation among all elected parliamentary candidates and their respective aspirants and supporters in the constituencies, asserting that there are no individual winners and losers in intra-party contest.
“I want to thank my campaign and operational teams for keeping their focus and delivering a clean campaign.
“I thank our donors and financiers for your support; the media for propagating our message and all our religious and traditional leaders who prayed on our behalf for the peace and success we have achieved today,” he stated.
He said he would today, at the University for Development Studies (UDS) in Tamale, be joined by a teeming number of the rank and file of the NDC and Ghanaians in general, to deliver his formal acceptance speech.
Concession
Meanwhile, Kojo Bonsu, who contested the former President, has conceded defeat.
The former Kumasi Mayor said he called John to congratulate him on his resounding victory in the presidential primary.
“I have placed a call to H.E. John Dramani Mahama to congratulate him for the landslide victory. Just as I’ve indicated throughout my campaign, regardless of the outcome of this election I’ll continue to serve the NDC party,” he said in a Facebook post.
By Ernest Kofi Adu