Mahama visits Rawlings

Former President John Dramani Mahama, has paid a courtesy call on party founder and former President Jerry John Rawlings.

The visit follows the election of Mr. Mahama over the weekend to lead the National Democratic Congress as presidential candidate for election 2020.

Mr. Rawlings tweeted the Monday visit, with an accompanying photograph in which he and Mahama are seen in a handshake. Both men are attired in white shirts over black trousers, and their faces lit up with a smile.

“Newly elected presidential candidate of the NDC, @JDMahama called on me a few minutes ago to extend his courtesies”, said Rawlings’ tweet.

It is however unclear why Mr. Mahama visited the party’s founder.

Some have claimed that the visit could be a calculated attempt to get Mr. Rawlings Nicknamed Mr. Boom on the campaign 2020 trail.

Others have also opined that the gesture is an attempt to repair the seeming estranged relationship between the two.

Mr. Rawlings has on countless occasions questioned the leadership of Mr. Mahama stressing the latter under his tenure as president departed from the ideals of the NDC.

Mr. Mahama on Saturday polled 213,487 votes representing 95.23 percent of the total valid votes cast with the other six contenders scrambling over less than 5% in a poll that involved about 330,000 NDC voters.

The former Presidents landslide victory does not come as a surprise to many, justifying the prediction of pundits that he remains the party’s most marketed candidate.

Others

Trailing the former president was Professor Joshua Alabi, a former Rector of the Institute of Professional Studies (IPS) who secured a total of 3,404 votes representing 1.52 per cent.

Interestingly, the man said to have mentored Mahama in politics, Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin placed third with 2,313 (1.032%).

NDC returnee, Augustus Goosie Tanoh, also polled 2,038 votes (0.909%) to place fourth.

Ekwow Spio-Gabrah, a former Communication Minister placed fifth with 1457 votes (0.650%) while Sylvester Mensah a former National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) Chief Executive managed 932 votes (0.415%) with Nurudeen Iddrisu securing 513 votes (0.231) to place sixth and seventh, respectively.