[ 2015-11-24 ]

John Dramani Mahama

NDC exposed Mahama to ridicule – Ursula Owusu
Member of Parliament for the Ablekuma West
constituency, Ursula Owusu-Ekuful has described as
shameful the number of ‘Nos’
President John Mahama obtained during the just
ended parliamentary and presidential primaries of
the NDC.

In her view, the NDC could have prevented this
disgraceful act by simply acclaiming the
President.

Speaking on Peace FM’s morning show
‘Kokroko’, the legislator said the
procedure the NDC adopted “exposed the
President to ridicule”.

It has been established that over 61,836
card-bearing members of the NDC voted against
President Mahama’s bid to lead the party in
the 2016 general elections.

Results released by the EC indicated that the
President garnered an overwhelming 1,199,118
representing 95.1 percent of the total votes
cast.

According to the EC, the total valid votes in the
presidential poll was 1,260,954 and total rejected
ballots were 25,774, representing 2 percent of
total votes cast.

But some critics say the 61,836 ‘No’
ballots representing 4.9 percent of total votes
cast against the President is embarrassing.

Mrs Ursula Owusu agrees. She questioned how the
NDC expects the rest of the country –
especially those who are not members of the NDC -
to vote for the President during the 2016
elections when they themselves have rejected him.

“His own people don’t want him why
should anyone vote for him. Even in Bole Bamboi
where he was MP for 12 years, his own people
don’t want him why should anyone vote for
him”, she queried.

Even more shameful, the MP noted is the fact that
the highest number of ‘No’ votes came
from the party’s strong hold - Northern
Region, followed by the Volta, Region –
7,811; Central – 7,548; Upper West –
6,504 and Upper East 6,085.

In the Eastern Region, where the NDC has been
drumming home an agenda of sharing next
year’s total votes at the national
elections equally with the opposition NPP,
recorded 5,103 ‘No’ votes.

“The rest of us can only take note of that
and use it in our campaign because we will not
have what someone has rejected”, she said.

The NDC’s presidential and parliamentary
primaries were not plain sailing. The party had
issues with the voters’ register in some
constituencies. Some voters on voting day could
not find their names in the register.

The aspirants for the Klottey Korle and the
Ningo-Prampram constituencies, Sam George and
Zanetor Rawlings could not find their names in the
register. The issues in Ningo-Prampram were
however resolved allowing voting to take place the
next day.

Mrs Owusu-Ekuful believes that if the NDC cannot
manage the cleaning of its own register and
conduct an election with it then, it has no right
to call for the cleaning of the national
register.

“If you face major challenges like names not
showing up the register then why are we suggesting
that the national one be cleaned? The so called
cleaning of the register doesn’t
work”.

She urged the Electoral Commission to take a cue
from the incident because it has been given
“a live example on a small scale”.

“Otherwise if this country goes up in flames
you Charlotte Kesson Smith-Osei will be held
personally responsible for it. Do whatever you can
to ensure there is peace in the country”.

But the Deputy Communications Director of the NDC,
Fred Agbenyo in a sharp rebuttal said Mrs
Owusu-Ekuful has got it all wrong.

He indicated that although the party wanted a 100
hundred percent endorsement through the votes, the
voters are not robots and cannot be compelled to
vote for the President.

“If the NDC wanted to deceive themselves and
the whole world we could have declared hundred
percent for the president”, he retorted.

He said allowing the presidential primaries to
take place was just appropriate.

Source - MyjoyOnline

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