General News of Wednesday, 19 August 2015

Source: peacefmonline

We won’t vote for any contender against mahama - Koku Anyidoho

NDC Deputy General Secretary, Koku Anyidoho NDC Deputy General Secretary, Koku Anyidoho

Deputy General Secretary of the ruling National Democratic Congress [NDC], Koku Anyidoho has endorsed the position of one of his National Vice Chairpersons, Samuel Ofosu Ampofo, saying the party is not prepared to vote for anybody that picks a form to contest President Mahama.

The party has set November 7, 2015 for its presidential and parliamentary primaries to elect potential candidates to lead the party into the crucial 2016 general elections; but even before nominations are open, various schemes are underway to get the President to go unopposed.

Leading the campaign is former Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, Samuel Ofosu Ampofo, one of the National Vice Chairpersons of the National Democratic Congress (NDC).

Commenting on this on Okay FM, the deputy Chief Scribe of the NDC said nothing stops anybody to contest President Mahama in the primaries as per their party’s constitution but warned any such potential candidate to do an introspection first.

“It is not in our constitution that nobody should challenge President Mahama; we announced at our meeting that anybody who feels he is qualified can go ahead to contest President John Mahama. Nothing stops you, but when you are going to pick the form, check yourself if you can win over President Mahama or if you think majority of the delegates will vote for you,” he advised.

He insisted that there are types of democracy that should inform people how to do things and for that matter picking a form to contest President Mahama in the name of exercising that franchise will be a wasteful venture.

He surmised that if the intention of the contender against President Mahama in the November 7, 2015 is to just test the waters to become the next possible successor after the President, it will be an attempt in futility as it doesn’t work that way in the NDC.

“I am on the same page with Ofosu Ampofo that I will vote for President Mahama and I know that at the Executive Committee level, it is clear that we will all vote for President Mahama; you can pick the presidential form, but you won’t get my vote,” he stated.