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The Deputy General Secretary of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Koku Anyidoho, has asked members of his party to ignore groups lobbying for the NDC’s running mate slot.

Speaking on Eyewitness News, Mr. Anyidoho said “ignore them, they are just wasting time.” 

His comment follows pressure from some NDC groups who are pushing for their preferred candidates to partner President Mahama in 2016. 

A group calling itself Ga Adangme Youth of the NDC in September, urged President Mahama to settle on the AMA Chief Executive, Alfred Oko Vanderpuije as his running mate, while the Volta Youth for Development also proposed the Speaker of Parliament, Edward Doe Adjaho.

Both groups had argued that their candidates are competent for the job and must be considered.

According to the Ga Adangbe group, their demand is to help the party address what they refer to as marginalization of the Greater Accra Region in both the presidential and running mate positions over the years.

“Not that we are doubting  the competency of Amissah-Arthur but what we are asking the President and all the national executives of the NDC is that they should just consider a Ga because it is our turn,” they said.

On their part however, the Volta group said their research had shown that the party will lose votes drastically if President Mahama settles on Mr. Amissah-Arthur for the second time, since in their view, “he was incompetent.”

“The fact is, Ghanaians have seen Amissah Arthur to be very incompetent as the Vice President to President Mahama and so, our believe which has sprung out of a research is that, his pair again with President Mahama as his running mate can only reduce the votes of NDC drastically,” they also argued.