The national leadership of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) after a crisis meeting on Thursday has settled on Emmanuel Kwaku Asante to lead the party in the New Juaben North Constituency for the December 7 elections.

This follows the death of the party’s Parliamentary Candidate, Sampson Oti Boateng, on Wednesday after a short illness.

He died 24 hours to the submission of his nomination.

The new parliamentary candidate, Emmanuel Kwaku Asante, was the only contender to the deceased in the NDC primaries a few months ago.

The Constituency Secretary, Asemdahor Anthony Kwame, said the NDC is still in shock and mourning, but work must still continue to ensure the party meets the deadline for the submission of nomination forms on Friday.

”The National Chairman himself was here with the regional executives to meet us this morning at a crisis meeting. We agreed on Emmanuel Asante. He is preparing to submit his forms on Friday.”

He was confident the new candidate could still hold the fort.

“The new candidate after the primaries joined the deceased’s camp. We had a united front before his shocking death.”

Sampson Oti Boateng, a pharmacy technician at St Joseph Hospital, died in Kumasi on Wednesday.

”We had just finished discussing on submitting our forms on Thursday, then he said he was traveling to Kumasi and would return for us to do so, just to receive a call he passed on. It is devastating.“