The seven presidential candidate hopefuls of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) had their balloting yesterday, with Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin selecting the first slot and former President Mahama picking the third slot.
The balloting followed a successful vetting process at the party’s headquarters in Accra, with six of them taking turns to have a feel of the baptism of fire, as the seven-member vetting committee grilled them from Archaeology to Zoology.
As it stands now, when one picks the official ballot paper on election day, Alban Bagin should come first, followed by Nurudeen Iddris, then John Dramani Mahama, Ekwow Spio-Gabrah, Augustus Goosie Tanoh, and Prof Joshua Alabi.
Already, some aspirants have started to read divine meanings into their positions. According to Mr. Bagbin, he was first to be vetted so he believes he would continue to lead.
Call it a coincidence if you are not divinity inclined, but Mr. Babin seems to be leading all round. After being first to be vetted, he also picked number one on the ballot paper.
Lest you forget, he is also contesting for the first time. Put all these together, the candidate is very hopeful of a win, though Mahama, who he leads on the ballot paper, appears the delegates’ favourite.
By the way, ahead of the 2016 elections, when Mr. Mahama picked number 3 on the presidential ballot, his campaign team adopted a quotation in the bible, combining his first name, the ballot number, and the year for eth election, thus John 3:16.
According to the King James Version of the Bible, John 3:16 reads, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”
However, it is not readily clear if there would be another version with the new ballot number and the year for the election, which would be; John 3:16, as this is just an internal election.
Again the King James Version of the above quotation reads; “And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.”
In the interim, all the aspirants are vigorously convincing delegates across the country with their ‘love’ messages, as part of their wooing techniques, just to see ‘paradise.’
Whilst other aspirants believe the time had come for the party to try a different candidate, Mr. Mahama believes it would be in the interest of the party to go into the 2020 elections with a candidate who has the crowd already.
Meanwhile, the NDC has set Saturday, February 23, 2019 to hold the election that would choose a candidate for the party ahead of the 2020 General Elections.
The party had to postpone the date from January 26, following an injunction by two party members against election guidelines set for the primary.
After agreeing to an out-of-court settlement, they deemed it prudent to allow ample time before the election, as the case delayed the original processes.
A communication from the party indicated that the first notice of the poll will be made available on January 26, 2019, with the final print done on January 28, 2019, while the printing of the ballot papers will begin on February 3.
According to the party, there will be 276 polling centres nationwide; a going away from the previous centralized system of voting for the nation executives, which was widely criticized.
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