Former President John Mahama
Former President John Mahama last Saturday walloped six other competitors in the presidential primary of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) by a whopping 95% to become the opposition party’s candidate for the 2020 elections.
The result is a repeat of the 2016 internal polls in which he contested unopposed but secured 94%.
He subsequently lost to Nana Akufo-Addo of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) in the 2016 presidential election.
The primary was held amidst tight security provided by the Ghana Police Service whose ground rules were clearly spelt out ahead of the polls to forestall any eventuality.
Although there were a few skirmishes which the police managed to control in Yeji and Ningo-Prampram, the polls were largely peaceful across the country.
A highlight of the polls was the inability of two contestants to vote.
Goosie Tanoh and Nurudeen Iddrisu could not cast their votes because they were not eligible per the party’s constitution.
However, Prof. Joshua Alabi escaped after an intervention by some stakeholders.
The Electoral Commission (EC) and the police won the hearts of many Ghanaians, including the NDC, for the efficiency which underpinned the polls.
The reports from our correspondents across the country follow:
Ashanti Region:
From the Ashanti Region, I.F. Joe Awuah Jnr and Ernest Kofi Adu report that former President John Mahama garnered 32,664 votes, representing 95.02%, to secure victory in the region.
His emphatic victory, which was replicated in all the 16 regions in the country, has set the stage for yet another contest between him and President Akufo-Addo.
Mr. Mahama, who clearly has the support of the grass-root members of the NDC, recorded victories in over 90 % in all the 47 constituencies in the region.
Significantly, the former president easily won in constituencies such as Asawase, Sekyere Afram Plains and Ejura Sekyeredumase, which are traditional NDC strongholds in the Ashanti Region.
Prof. Joshua Alabi pulled a major surprise by emerging as the first runner-up with 554 votes, representing 1.62%, and he was followed by Alban Bagbin with 346 votes, which is 1.01%.
Goosie Tanoh managed 345 votes, representing 1.00%; Ekwow Spio-Garbrah obtained 261 votes, representing 0.76%; Sylvester Adinam Mensah had 100 votes, representing 0.29% and Nurudeen Iddrisu was last with 84 votes, representing 0.24%.
The polls were held under tight security across all the 47 constituencies in the region.
The Ashanti Regional Police Command deployed armed personnel to all the polling stations to maintain law and order.
In general, the NDC delegates behaved well, as they joined long queues and patiently waited for their turn to cast their ballot peacefully.
The NDC’s known vigilante groups, who always protect the party’s ballot boxes during elections such as ‘The Hawks’ and ‘Taskforce’, were all missing in action during the Saturday polls.
The party had earlier announced that the vigilante groups would not be needed during the presidential primary.
Significantly, the NDC members also complied with an order from the police that no motorbike should be brought to any polling station. In all, the police had little job to do on the day.
Northern, Savannah, North East and Upper West
Eric Kombat reports that the former president received an overwhelming endorsement from the party’s delegates across North, Savannah, North-East and Upper West regions.
He secured a massive win in his hometown Bole Bamboi by polling a total number of 750 votes out of 762 total votes cast.
Alban Bagbin managed to poll four votes while Joshua Alabi and Nurudeen Iddrisu each got a single vote.
Sylvester Mensah, Spio-Garbrah, Goosie Tanoh could not obtain a single vote in the Bole Bamboi Constituency.
Mr. Mahama dominated the entire voting process with massive endorsement by the delegates.
Immediately after Mr. Mahama voted in the Bole-Bamboi Constituency, he told journalists that the NDC had always united after going through primaries.
According to him, even though a few times his opponents used unpleasant words to describe him, it did not get to him because as, he put it, he’s an experienced politician who understands the game.
He called on party supporters to come together and support the party to recapture power from the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) come 2020.
A fanfare was quickly organized by some bigwigs of the NDC in Bole to celebrate the overwhelming victory of former president John Dramani Mahama.
Western Region
From the Western and Western North regions, Emmanuel Opoku, reports from Takoradi that the over 25,000 delegates in the Western Region voted massively for former President John Mahama.
He polled 20,967 votes out of the 21,917 valid vote cast in the polls conducted across the 26 constituencies of the region.
In the Jomoro Constituency, John Mahama had 1,081 votes while Alban Bagbin and Spio-Garbrah got six votes each.
Nurudeen Iddrisu had zero, Sylvester Mensah polled one vote while Goosie Tanoh had 20 votes and Joshua Alabi had four votes.
In the Ellembelle Constituency, Alban Bagbin had two votes; Nurudeen Iddrisu also polled two votes, with John Mahama securing 931 votes.
Sylvester Mensah and Spio-Garbrah had two votes each.
Goosie Tanoh and Joshua Alabi had nine and 16 votes respectively.
Former President Mahama polled 603 votes in the Evalue-Ajomoro-Gwira Constituency to beat the other contenders.
In that constituency, Alban Bagbin had eight votes, while Nurudeen Iddrisu polled three votes, with Joshua Alabi, Sylvester Mensah and Spio-Garbrah polling 19, seven and three votes respectively.
In Ahanta West, Bagbin had 11 votes, with Nurudeen Iddrisu securing three votes and John Mahama, 1,002 votes.
Sylvester Mensah polled six votes; Spio-Garbrah had 16 votes; Goosie Tanoh, 10 votes and Joshua, 26 votes.
In the Takoradi Constituency, Bagbin garnered seven votes, Nurudeen had zero, John Mahama polled 688 votes, with Sylvester Mensah polling one vote and Spio-Garbrah, five votes.
Goosie Tanoh had three votes and Joshua Alabi obtained six votes.
In the Bodi Constituency, Bagbin had four votes, Nurudeen Iddrisu, one vote and John Mahama, 606 votes.
Sylvester Mensah polled two votes with Spio-Garbrah, Goosie Tanoh and Joshua Alabi polling three, six and seven votes respectively.
In Sekondi, John Mahama garnered 553 votes; Bagbin had seven votes, while Nurudeen Iddrisu polled one vote.
Sylvester Mensah polled five votes with Spio-Garbrah, Goosie Tanoh and Joshua Alabi polling four, two and four votes respectively.
At Essikado-Ketan, Bagbin had zero, Nurudeen Iddrisu polled two votes and John Mahama had 699 votes.
Sylvester Mensah polled only one vote while Spio-Garbrah, Goosie Tanoh and Joshua Alarbi had 12, 0 and six votes respectively.
The former president posted similar overwhelming victories in the other constituencies in the region.
Fred Duodo reports that in the Volta and Oti regions where 23,217 delegates were expected to vote, Mr. Mahama garnered 21,848 votes out of 22,474 valid votes cast.
This was followed by Prof. Joshua Alabi who got 229 votes.
Goosie Tanoh got 160 votes, while Alban Kingsford Sumana Bagbin got 70 votes. Ekow Spio-Garbrah and Sylvester Adinam Mensah both got 68 votes, followed by Alhaji Nurudeen Iddrissu who got 31 votes.
The regional secretary of the party expressed gratitude to the delegates for coming out early to ensure peaceful and incident-free elections in the region.
He urged them to come together to capture power from the governing NPP.
Greater Accra Region
In the Greater Accra Region, the former president put up similar performance.
DAILY GUIDE gathered that there were no skirmishes in all the polling stations across the region.
Victory Speech
By the time the official results were declared, all the aspirants had lined up to congratulate Mr. Mahama.
Mr. Mahama, in his victory speech, called for unity and said nothing would stop the opposition party from unseating the ruling NPP to take over the Flagstaff House.
No Fair Play
It was obvious that the former president was going to win after everything was ‘schemed’ in his favour.
Many people, including some of the candidates, said there was no level-playing field in the contest and that it was a mere formality.
The unity walks, compilation of the NDC register, fixing of filing fees and printing of ballots had been ‘skewed’ in the favour of Mr. Mahama.
If any of the candidates had obtained about 10 % of the votes, it would have been a shocker, critics said.
In the process, almost every NDC MP openly campaigned for him, and from national, regional to constituency levels, the majority of the executives backed him.