By: Nicholas Osei-Wusu
The 2020 Flag-bearer of the National Democratic Congress, NDC, and Former President, John Dramani Mahama has said that he would register to become a Polling Agent of his party in the Presidential and Parliamentary elections in 2024.
According to him, any mistake the party would make at the Polling Station would go a long way to impact them in the election just as it happened in the last polls.
Mr. Mahama made the declaration in Kumasi at a forum of party Constituency and Regional Executives, losing Parliamentary Candidates, former NDC government appointees, the Ashanti Region’s Parliamentary Caucus and other affiliate organs of the party in the region.
The forum formed part of the ‘Thank You Tour’ of the former President.
He was accompanied by the National Chairman, Samuel Ofosu-Ampofo, General Secretary, Johnson Asiedu-Nketia, the 2020 Vice Presidential Candidate among other national party functionaries of the NDC.
Mr. Mahama noted that with the vast size and political dynamics of the Ashanti Region, it is advisable to devise a new strategy for effective and efficient management of the region to maximize votes during elections.
The former President commended the party in the Ashanti Region for working very hard to make Ashanti the 2nd votes earning administrative region behind the Greater Accra. This, he noted, was also due to the fact that the then Volta region had been split.
Mr. Mahama announced that in 2021, the NDC would organize congresses to elect new officers from the Polling Station to the national levels.
The national delegates Congress he said, would be used to examine the existing Constitution and policies of the party so as to position the NDC very well for the 2024 elections.
He entreated the constituent bodies of the party to come up with new and better ideas for consideration.
Giving an overview of the elections in the Ashanti region in 2020, the Regional Secretary, Kwame Zu described as unfair, a strategy by the Electoral Commission to create more than 1,500 new Polling Centres about 2 months to the polls which in their view disadvantaged the NDC in organizing itself properly.
He said even though the Regional Executives fell short of their target for the election, the Region’s performance was an improvement over the 2016 polls.
There was an increase in the NDC’s Presidential vote tally from 542,000 to 653,000 while the number of Parliamentary seats won also shot up from 3 to 4.
