Chairman of the party, Samuel Ofosu Ampofo told journalists Saturday morning that the two flagbearer hopefuls, NDC cadre Goosie Tanoh and businessman Alhaji Nurideen Iddrisu, cannot vote in the presidential primary because per the party’s constitution, they do not qualify.
Despite the two being candidates in the primary said: “I think Goosie Tanoh and I think Nureedeen cannot vote.”
He argued that per the eligibility criteria in the party’s constitution, the two cannot be allowed to cast a vote.
“You must be a branch executive member, constituency executive member, regional executive member or you must have served in the previous NDC government as a minister of state, district chief executives, Member of Parliament or an ambassador. So if you don’t fall within this category of course then you cannot vote,” he explained.
Some 280,000 delegates have since 7:00am Saturday been voting to elect who among the seven candidates leads the NDC into the next general elections in 2020.
Contesting are former President John Dramani Mahama; second deputy Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin; former Vice Chancellor of University of Professional Studies, Accra, Prof. Joshua Alabi; former Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the National Health Insurance Authority Sylvester Mensah.
The rest are Ekwow Spio-Garbrah; Alhaji Nurideen Iddrisu, and, Mr Goosie Tanoh.
Election watchers have tipped former president Mahama to win but the margin, which establishes his popularity in the party, is what they are observing in today’s exercise.
NDC chairman Ofosu Ampofo who visited some voting centres in Accra to observe the voting process said though Mr Tanoh and Alhaji Iddrisu qualified to contest the primary, that was not automatic qualification for them to vote in the same primary.
“You can contest; as for the contest you’re a member of the party, you’re qualified under the constitution of the republic of Ghana and under the constitution of the party but you don’t have voting rights. That is it,” he said.
Our correspondents who have been following the two candidates reported that though the two visited a number of voting centres, they did not cast a vote as was expected by many.
By 3news.com|Ghana