The Tema East Constituency Chairman of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) is sympathizing with the rank and file of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), who he said have allowed themselves to be goaded into an aimless demonstration by former President John Dramani Mahama.

In response to the nationwide demonstration against the Electoral Commission’s refusal to subject the voter register to a forensic audit, Nene Ofoe Teye-Chu Agbadiagba LV said the rest of the party are only sweating for a man who knows he cannot win the 2024 election.

“By all intents and purposes, this is an aimless errand for John Mahama that will end up nowhere because no amount of sweating and walking will persuade the Electoral Commission to kowtow to Mr. John Mahama’s whims,” the Tema East NPP Chairman said.

According to him, the Electoral Commission will not be moved because there is absolutely no basis to comply.

“The Commission only recently exhibited the voters’ register so that voters can cross-check to ensure that their registration has not been altered in any way, and so why would anybody now come and demand a wasteful forensic audit? Mahama just wants us to go and pay a consultant to come and audit a register that has already been cross-checked by voters themselves,” he added.

The reaction of Nene Agbadiagba comes in the wake of the NDC’s declaration of a nationwide demonstration to compel the EC to subject the voters’ register to a forensic audit, even though the EC says whatever problem the NDC has envisaged has been dealt with.

According to Nene Ofoe Teye-Chu Agbadiagba IV, Mr. John Mahama goaded the NDC into the demonstration and that the motivation was a face-saving measure.

“About a year ago, all the polls and assessments showed that John Mahama was leading the public opinion contest due to the effects of COVID-19 and the Russia-Ukraine war. However, since Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia got elected as the NPP’s flagbearer and started putting across the outlook of his government, Mahama’s public appeal has dipped."

“Realizing that he is about to lead the NDC to its third defeat in a row, he has decided to prepare the mind of the NDC so that if he loses, he can contest for the party’s flagbearership again for 2028,” Nene told journalists at Tema New Town on Wednesday.

According to him, it is out of this shenanigan that Mr. John Mahama instigated the demonstration against the EC.

“We know this because this is a stock in trade of Mahama—he used similar tactics after losing the 2016 elections and then later, the 2020 elections. But like in both cases, he lost, and he will lose again,” he added.

Nene advised the NDC to abandon John Mahama and focus on getting a better candidate for the 2028 elections.

“The reason why the NDC will lose is not because of any bloated register, but because the candidate himself is not winnable. The NDC may be deceived, but the rest of the Ghanaian people are not. They know that this is the same John Mahama who declared himself a dead goat when he was president—the same John Mahama who failed to solve the country’s problems, including the Dagbon crisis of the Northern Region. This is why he is not attractive to voters,” Nene Ofoe Teye-chu Agbadiagba IV said.