Former Finance Minister Dr Kwabena Duffuor has withdrawn from the campaign for NDC flagbearer.
Dr Duffuor aspired to head the National Democratic Congress (NDC) following the party’s presidential and parliamentary elections on Saturday, May 13.
Prior to Saturday’s primaries, the former Finance Minister expressed worry over several anomalies in the party’s voter registry.
Dr Duffuor, speaking at a news conference Friday evening, accused the party’s leadership of breaking the agreement and commitment provided to the three presidential hopefuls to rectify the problems highlighted regarding the register before Saturday’s elections.
“At the meeting chaired by the former speaker of parliament, Rt Hon. Edward Doe Adjaho, all stakeholders at the meeting agreed that the Party Chairman, Johnson Asiedu Nketia would immediately set up a technical team comprising the technical representatives from the 3 presidential aspirants and the party’s election committee to determine how soon the irregularities with the voters register could be resolved in readiness for the Presidential primaries.
“The technical committee was to subsequently submit a report to parties after this had been determined As I speak with you, our technical team is currently at the Party headquarters to undertake this activity.
“However, despite the assurances given to myself and my team by the Chairman of the party, the executives of the party, in a complete and unacceptable breach of faith, went ahead to convene a press conference announcing that the elections would go ahead tomorrow, without having resolved the concerns surrounding the voters register as decided at the meeting of the Council of Elders”
Dr Duffuor added that “My concerns that the party is not ready to conduct a free and fair election is evident for all to see. Taking part in such would be akin to knowingly drinking from a poisoned calabash. After consulting with my support base nationwide, I have been left with no choice but to withdraw from the Presidential election as I cannot contest in an election which is blatantly fraught with irregularities regardless of all my efforts to draw attention to same.”
Former President John Dramani Mahama, who is in his hometown of Bole to vote, will now face former Kumasi mayor Kojo Bonsu on Saturday.
