Dr. Kwabena Duffuor, John Mahama
The opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) has unveiled a roadmap for the conduct of its internal elections ahead of the 2024 general election, kicking things off on Wednesday, June 15, 2022 with branch executive elections.
The National Executive Committee (NEC) of the NDC, which took the decision at its meeting held on Monday, said the internal primary process will wrap up eight months later in February 2023 when the party will choose a flagbearer to lead it in the national elections.
Per the provisional timetable released by the party, the NDC said the branch executive elections would start on June 15, 2022 and end in July, adding that the results will be collated to build data for the constituency executive elections to be held in September 2022.
The constituency elections will be followed by the regional executive elections in October 2022 and the election of the national executive officers in November 2022.
The cusp of the primary process will be the flagbearership contest which is scheduled to take place in February 2023, and the NDC is poised to confirm a history-making pick to the position, with ex-President John Dramani Mahama tipped to win.
Even though anxiety punctuated by political legacy concerns combined with exhaustion of new ideas, the popularity has tilted the NDC political environment in favour of Mr. Mahama, who also has electoral history on his side.
There is also a unique dynamic to this contest, with former President Mahama eyeing a potential return to the Jubilee House and looking to lay the groundwork by leading criticism against the New Patriotic Party (NPP) government led by President Akufo-Addo.
The NDC is currently split on Mahama faction and Mills faction [now led by Dr. Kwabena Duffuor], and with its national officers serving as a tiebreaker, the internal primaries are expected to come down to a two-horse competitive race at all levels.
Reports said all newly created branches of the NDC will have new branch executives, and that only members of a branch who registered by the end of 2018 can contest, but all members with their names on the branch register can vote.
By Ernest Kofi Adu