Former President John Mahama has once again won the votes of National Democratic Congress (NDC) delegates to lead the party into the 2024 presidential election.
Certified results by the Electoral Commission (EC) show Mr Mahama polled an overwhelming 297,603 votes representing 98.9% of the total valid votes cast at the end of the NDC primaries on Saturday.
His closest contender, the former Kumasi Mayor Kojo Bonsu, polled a paltry 3,181 representing 1.1%.
The other contender in the NDC flagbearership race, former Finance Minister in the Mills regime, Kwabena Duffour, pulled out on Friday.
This is the fourth time John Mahama will be leading the NDC into an election.
Then Vice President John Mahama who took over from President John Evans Mills when the latter died while in office in July 2012, went on to win the election later that year.
As an incumbent, he first lost to then New Patriotic Party (NPP) presidential candidate Nana Akufo-Addo in 2016, becoming the first President to serve only one full term.
He won the flagbearership race in February 2019 with an overwhelming endorsement of 95% votes to represent the NDC in the 2020 election but he lost to incumbent President Nana Akufo-Addo who was declared the winner of the Dec. 7, vote with 51.59%, ahead of the DNC candidate who received 47.37%.
Mr Mahama challenged the outcome at the Supreme Court, arguing that Akufo-Addo’s votes in some polling stations were padded, pushing him above the 50% threshold needed to avoid a runoff.
He lost the court challenge.
Once again, delegates of the opposition party in a decisive outcome in 2019 gave the former President the go-ahead to lead the party as its flagbearer into the 2020 polls. Once again he lost.
In many recent interviews, Mr Mahama has said that with the benefit of hindsight, he has realised his mistakes and wants another opportunity to better lead the country.
Mr Mahama told journalists after casting his vote on Saturday that, “his [Duffour’s] withdrawal at the last minute does not change anything, I just voted, there are many delegates going to vote, the result will still be what it is and I expect it to be a landslide.”
He continued, “There is no disunity in the party, absolutely not. One contender was dissatisfied with the process, it doesn’t mean there is disunity in the party.
“NDC is a family and all of them are part of that family, as long as they are willing to come together and let us work toward 2024 I don’t think there is any problem, the party will make overtures.”
On Friday, May 12, Dr Kwabena Duffour formally pulled out from the NDC flagbearership contest.
Addressing a presser, the former governor of the Bank of Ghana stated that his decision was based on his grievances with the processes, especially the voters register, which he thought did not guarantee free and fair elections.
He explained that the exercise was marred by a lot of irregularities; a situation that was not resolved by the leadership of the party.
Last four years, Kojo Bonsu similarly pulled out during the race.
