It is now official. The race for the Castle, or the abandoned Jubilee House, is a straight fight between Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, leader of the largest opposition party, the New Patriotic Party (NPP), and President John Mahama, leader of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC).

Hassan Ayariga of the Peoples National Convention (PNC), Dr. Paa Kwesi Nduom of the Progressive Peoples Party (PPP), and Dr. Abu Sakara Foster of the Convention Peoples Party (CPP), will also be contesting. But if political pundits are to be believed, the leaders of these smaller parties are destined to be footnotes of the contest.

President John Mahama was nominated as flagbearer of the NDC in the 2012 general elections at an emergency National Executive (NEC) meeting held in Accra yesterday. The NDC has set September 1st for a Special Delegate’s Congress, at which President Mahama’s nomination as flagbearer is expected to be endorsed.

The NEC meeting follows the vacuum created in the bureaucratic structure of the NDC in the event of the untimely demise of President John Evans Atta Mills, leader of the party on Tuesday, July 24.

The parliamentary group, lead by Haruna Iddrisu, Minister of Communications, moved a motion for the adoption of Mr Mahama the flagbearer of the party, at the meeting which was attended by several bigwigs in the NDC. There were no reports of any other nomination.

Conspicuously absent was party founder Jerry John Rawlings. At the time of going to press last night, it was not known why the party leader, who had arrived home from a visit to Congo Brazzaville on Wednesday morning, was not at the meeting.

Among the big shots present at the meeting were Mr. Johnson Asiedu-Nketia, NDC General Secretary. National Chairman Kwabena Agyei, Minister of Food and Agriculture Kwesi Ahwoi, Foreign Affairs Minister Alhaji Mohammed Mumuni, Alhaji Collins Dauda, Minister of Transport, Attorney General Ben Kunbuor and National Propaganda Secretary Richard Quashigah.

Rawlings ignored?

It was expected that at such an important meeting of executives of the party, its founder would be in attendance to gather synergy on the way forward for the party, but again, former President Jerry John Rawlings was conspicuously absent, but it is unclear if he was invited at all.

His absence has raised eyebrows in political circles as to whether Mr. Rawlings has finally washed his hands off the affairs on the party he has nursed as a baby over the years.

It is common knowledge that Mr. Rawlings was not going to mount the campaign platform of the NDC in the coming elections, for reasons that the party had lost the values for which the party was elected into office.

He mentioned corruption and bad governance as evidence to back his decision. Already, his name has popped up as the architect behind the formation of the National Democratic Party (NDP), a breakaway party from the NDC, currently awaiting certification by the Electoral Commission of Ghana.

Last Tuesday, as the country went sober, mourning the late President Mills, Mr. Rawlings told the world on British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) that President Mills could have lived longer, had he gotten better advice and done something wiser.

“Quite frankly, I think that had he been advised and done something wiser earlier on, he could probably have survived for another six, seven months, I guess. But it got too tight; it got extremely tight,” Mr. Rawlings told the BBC

But his statement has been roundly condemned by the public, including members of the NDC who thought that as former Head of State of this Republic, Mr. Rawlings could have been a bit more diplomatic with his comment on the demise of Prof. Mills.

The Director of Operations at the Castle, Nii Lantey Vanderpuye, described Mr Rawlings’ statement as “totally irresponsible and absurd.”

“Adzi Wo Fie A Oye” and the Central Region

When all is said and done on September 1, 2012, and President Mahama is endorsed by congress at the flagbearer, the NDC would be limited in the task of marketing their new leader within a time space of barely five months to elections.

One of the major problems confronting the party is how to re-brand their winning slogan in the Central and Western regions especially.

With the demise of President Mills, the ‘Adzi Wo Fie A Oye” mantra, with which the party made sweeping gains in the Central Region, especially, would no more be applicable.

The region had bought into the idea well propagated by the NDC and its leader that it was better to have a son of the region occupying the national seat at the Castle, hence the Adzi Wo Fie A Oye’ mantra.

With the demise of the President Mills, political watchers will keenly observe the kind of message the NDC would send to the region, although some believe that the NDC might gain from sympathy votes.