The New Patriotic Party (NPP) while commending the governing National Democratic Congress for successful primaries also admonished President John Mahama to be worried by the number of NDC members who voted No against him.
“In the absence of no contestant, the ‘no’ votes also imply that nearly 5% of NDC supporters prefer anybody than President Mahama. This should be food for thought for all,” a statement signed by the NPP’s Director of Communications, Nana Akomea added.
President Mahama after the NDC primaries over the weekend polled 1,199,118 (95.10%) votes while 61,836 representing 5% voted “No.”
According to the NPP, though President Mahama had a 95% endorsement, “his performance may actually be on the decline” because “as the incumbent, President Mahama enjoys all the huge advantages of executive presidency” and that “he had not contestant.”
The NPP further analyzed that the president “nevertheless also engaged in a massive nationwide campaign in the run out to the flagbearership primary. His 95.1% endorsement compares not too favourably with Nana Akufo Addo’s 94.3%, considering that Nana Addo did not enjoy any advantages of an incumbent presidency and faced contests from three other party stalwarts.”
“In 2011, President John Evans Atta mills, against fierce competition from Mrs Konadu Agyeman Rawlings, secured 96.7% of valid votes cast. President Mahama in 2012, unopposed, secured 99.5% of valid votes cast. In 2015, still unopposed, President Mahama secures 95.1% of valid votes cast, a worse result than President Mills, and a loss of more than 4% of his (president Mahama’s) own endorsement in 2012.”
On the pockets of violence that marred the primaries in some constituencies, the NPP said there is however “the need for political parties to come together to brainstorm on new measures and rules of engagement that can limit these negative occurrences during primaries or elections in general.”
Nana Addo congratulates Mahama
Meanwhile, in a separate statement, the Flagbearer of the NPP, Nana Akufo-Addo congratulated President Mahama for his election.
“This is to congratulate President John Dramani Mahama on his election as the presidential candidate for the National Democratic Congress (NDC) for the upcoming presidential elections in 2016. I look forward to a healthy, incident-free, democratic, free, fair and credible contest in 2016,” he added.
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