Mahama Picks 3rd Slot on Ballot Paper, Bagbin 1st

Former President John Dramani Mahama picked the third slot on the ballot paper in the National Democratic Congress' (NDC's) upcoming presidential primary slated for February 23, 2019.

During the balloting for slots on Wednesday, the Member of Parliament for Nadowli-Kaleo, Alban Bagbin, picked the first slot followed by businessman, Nurudeen Iddrisu.

The fourth slot was picked by Sylvester Mensah, followed by Ekwow Spio-Garbrah, Goosie Tanoh and Prof. Joshua Alabi in that order.

The balloting for the slots was done today, Wednesday, January 23, 2019, at the party's headquarters in Accra.

All the five aspirants were duly vetted at the NDC's headquarters on Tuesday with each person expressing confidence of emerging victorious in the party's presidential primary.

The NDC's Acting Director of Elections, Bede-Ziedin, told the media that printing of ballot papers will take place from 3^rd to 17^th February 2019, after which they would be forwarded to all their constituency centres where the election will be held.

But for an injunction on the NDC’s presidential election, the party would have conducted the exercise before the end of January 2019.

The NDC eventually agreed to declare its guidelines for the presidential primaries null and void after contentions over transparency and the filing fees which was reduced along the line.

Besides agreeing to hold the elections in a free fair and transparent manner, the party also agreed to consider the GHc 300,000 not as filing fees only, but also as a contribution by the towards the cost of the primaries.

“When the candidates are cleared by the vetting committee, they will then be presented with the voter's register,” the NDC National Chairman, Samuel Ofosu Ampofo noted at an earlier press conference.

The first notice of poll will be made available on January 26, 2019, with the final print done on January 28, 2019.

The party has also said there will be 276 polling centres nationwide; a departure from the much-criticised centralised system of voting for the national executives.

“According to the Electoral Commission, any constituency where the total number registered voters exceeds 1000, they will create additional polling booths at the same polling centre.”

–citinewsroom