NDC Presidential hopeful, Sylvester Mensah has accused party executives of favouring former President John Dramani Mahama to increase chances of the former to win the flagbearership position.

Speaking to Ghanaweb at the sidelines of the election, Mr Sly Mensah alleged that some national executives of the party campaigned vividly for Mahama, organised meetings on his behest and though the other aspirants complained about the infractions, party executives turned a blind eye to it because they are in favour of Mahama.

“We have had so many infractions from the word go, from issues relating to delegates list. Up to now we never had a full list as we wanted; telephone numbers of delegates removed from the list and I’ve had situations where the national executives or some members of the national executives got involved in the campaign of one candidate; the former president. We saw the party itself organising meetings for one candidate. We have complained about these infractions it never worked”, he complained bitterly.

According to him, party executives made each flagbearer aspirant pay a sum of GHC320,000 with the assurance of covering food and transport of voters but the executives later had a U-turn saying the transport was only sponsored by John Mahama.

Bemoaning how he and the other aspirants have been sidelined by party executives, Sly Mensah said there is undue advantage for Mahama.

“We paid GHC320,000 per aspirant; it was intended to also provide transport and to some extent some food. We had the party announcing that they’re unable to provide transport and then the party in another breathe announced that one person is providing transport. You could see clearly that this is an attempt to create unfair advantage”, he lamented.

“We’ve come very far, we’ve sent petitions. Some right-thinking people have gone to court placing injunction, they won the injunction by way of getting the party to plead to get it settled out of court in order to accept all the relieves that were being sorted. It tells you clearly that these infractions are real”, he added bitterly.

Being optimistic of winning the flagbearership position although the party has its favourite candidate, Mr Sly Mensah said he would support whoever wins the presidential primaries because the results are evidence of what party members want.



Background

The National Democratic Congress (NDC) today in all the regions are voting to select a leader for the 2020 Presidential Election. Seven stalwarts are ready for the faceoff to receive the endorsement of delegates in the election, to be held at the constituency level across the nation.

They are Mr Goosie Tanoh, a businessman, Former President John Dramani Mahama, Professor Joshua Alabi, a former Vice-Chancellor of the University of Professional Studies and Mr Alban Sumanu Bagbin, Second Deputy Speaker of Parliament. The rest are Mr Ekwow Spio-Garbrah, a Former Minister of Education and Trade, Mr Sylvester Mensah, a former Chief Executive Officer of the National Health Insurance Authority and Alhaji Nurudeen Iddrisu, a businessman.

However, it has emerged that former President Mahama is winning with a huge margin from one of the 275 constituencies across the country.

Final results from the Bodi Constituency in the Western Region, where polls have closed at least five hours before official closing time, has the former President beating his six challengers by at least 600 votes.

Mr Mahama polled a total of 608 delegates’ votes.

Alban Kingsford Sumani Bagbin polled 5 votes; Ekwow Spio-Garbrah polled 4 votes; Prof. Joshua Alabi polled 9 votes; Sylvester Mensah polled 3 votes; Goosie Tanoh 7 votes and businessman, Alhaji Nurideen Iddrisu polled 2 votes.

Total votes cast was 641 with three ballots rejected, representing 95% turnout.