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A 45-year-old youth organizer has picked up forms to challenge President John Mahama for the Presidential candidature of the governing National Democratic Congress (NDC) in next year's polls.

George Boateng says President John Mahama has failed to improve the lives of the poor and does not deserve to lead the party into the December 7 presidential elections.

George Boateng has criticized top party officials such as a Vice Chairman Ofosu Ampofo who have decreed that Mahama must be allowed to go unopposed.

President Mahama served almost four years as Vice to President John Atta Mills who died barely four months to the 2012 presidential elections. He served out that term and won the 2012 elections for a four-year term which ends in December 2016.

He will seek re-election to extend his mandate to 2020. The party has set November 7 to elect a flagbearer and 275 parliamentary candidates.

But George Boateng believes that a victory for President Mahama is not a foregone conclusion despite the overwhelming support in favour of the president. He will have to convince a majority of card-bearing members of the party if he goes through the nomination process.

Mr. Boateng insists, he is not being pushed or manipulated by external political forces although he describes himself as a well-known associate of the former first lady Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings.

The former first lady challenged the late president John Atta Mills when he sought re-election as flagbearer in 2011.

Despite the links, George says he is in the race on his own merit. He picked the form for 1,000 cedis at the party office in Accra. It was without fanfare.

Dressed in white, the 45-year old man spotted a brooch inscribed with a picture of President Mahama

When George is returning to submit his forms, he will pay 50,000 as filing fees. But he insists that challenging the president is not a waste of time.