<<Print>>The race for selecting who leads the People’s National Convention (PNC) in the 2016 election is getting keener by the day. So far, three names have come up as likely contestants for the party’s presidential candidate slot.
One of the three is Dr Edward Nasigri Mahama, who was the party’s presidential candidate in 1996, 2000, 2004 and 2008.
Also to be reckoned with is the party’s presidential candidate in the 2012 elections, Mr Hassan Ayariga, who has already started his campaign for the position with a tour of the country.
Mr Edward Mahama is yet to officially declare his intention to contest, but a group, made up of past and present PNC Executives who visited him at his residence in Accra recently said they were confident he was going to seek the position again to save the PNC from collapse.
The latest to join the race is Dr Michael Mensah-Bonsu, the chairman of the party from 2004 to 2008 who is currently based in Canada.
An aspiring National Chairman of the party, Mr Abu Sadiq Kwashie-Ebla, is a member of a group of frontline activists of the party who are rooting for Dr Mensah-Bonsu to become the leader and presidential candidate of the party in next year’s elections.
Yearning for change
In an interview with the Daily Graphic, Mr Kwashie-Ebla said many people in the PNC were yearning for a change in the leadership of the party in order that it might become attractive to voters, particularly the youth.
He said it had become imperative that the party moved away from ethnic consideration in electing a flag bearer of the party by considering someone with the right competencies and qualities and who hails from elsewhere in the country apart from a place in the northern regions and is capable of winning next year’s elections for the party.
He said faithful followers of the party were hopeful that Dr Mensah-Bonsu would bring his leadership skills and experience to bear on the party as it prepared for victory in election 2016.
Dr Mensah-Bonsu was a senior member of the National Executive Council of the PNC.
During his time as chairman of the party, he ensured that the party worked in strict adherence to its Constitution.
He is a staunch Nkrumaist and has worked over the years to unify the PNC and the Convention People’s Party (CPP).
PNC candidates
At the inception of the Fourth Republic in 1992, the PNC fielded the former President Dr Hilla Limann as its presidential candidate. Dr
Mahama succeeded him as the party’s presidential candidate for a record fourth time until 2011, when Mr Hassan Ayariga was elected as presidential candidate for the 2012 elections.
The PNC goes to congress on October 10, 2015, to elect new officers and the party’s presidential candidate.