It's Not Time To Think About Mahama's Successor – Kofi Attoh

The National Democratic Congress(NDC) is not worried about a potential leadership deficit in the party following John Mahama’s easy victory in the presidential primary, according to the party’s Vice Chairman, Kofi Attoh.

The former President secured an overwhelming 213,487 votes representing 95.23 percent of the total votes cast in a field of seven persons.

In the event Mr. Mahama won the 2020 election for his second term, the NDC will have to find another flagbearer but Mr. Attoh said: “anybody who is thinking about a successor to Mahama after 2024 is stretching himself a little too far.”

The concerns notwithstanding, he said there was a possibility of a successor quickly ascending to the top of the party in the manner of France’s President Emmanuel Macron after John Mahama.

“There are about four million people who vote for NDC. Even the beautiful ones are not yet born. There are too many people in NDC to succeed John Mahama than we can think off.”

In the meantime, Mr. Attoh said the party is willing to stick with Mr. Mahama in hope of an election 2020 victory despite the poor performance in the 2016 election.

The NDC’s performance in 2016 prompted soul searching and committee to make recommendations to the party on how to regroup ahead of the next elections.

“The thinking of our people at NDC is that we have tried him and we have seen what went wrong. We are ready to correct it.”

Though there were clear indications that most of the executives and legislators in the party were in favour of a Mahama presidency bid, Mr. Attoh insisted that delegates voted on their own accord.

“If that is the feeling of the party, it is not a directive from Accra. If that is the feeling yo get talking to those who are voting and the MPs then the aggregation of that is the feeling of the party but [executives] do not come in.”

Performance of other candidates

Also contesting in the polls, a former Vice-Chancellor of University of Professional Studies; Accra (UPSA), Prof. Joshua Alabi came second with 3,404 votes representing 1.52% of the total valid votes cast.

The Second Deputy Speaker and Member of Parliament for Nadowli/Kaleo, Mr Alban Kingsford Sumani Bagbin, polled 2,301 votes representing 1.03% of the total votes cast, placing third.

Goosie Tanoh, founder of the Reform Party, a breakaway from the NDC came fourth with 2,091 votes representing 0.93%.

The former Trades and Industry Minister in the Mahama government, Ekwow Spio Garbrah received 1,447 votes which represent 0.65% of the total votes.

Former Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA), Mr Sylvester Mensah and businessman secured 934 of valid votes cast representing o.42 percent.

A businessman, Nurudeen Iddrisu placed seventh with a paltry 520 votes representing 0.23%.

Source: Citifmonline.com