‘Winning 2020 election remains my main priority’ – Mahama

Flagbearer of the National Democratic Congress, John Dramani Mahama has said, winning the 2020 general election remains his main achievement and that of the party.

According to him, the 2020 polls would determine the fortunes and future of the NDC as well as the future of the country.

John Mahama made this known at the opening session of a three-day capacity building retreat for Elections Directors of the NDC party in Tamale, under the theme, ‘Repositioning the Election Directorate Strategically for 2020 Elections’.

He used the opportunity to urge the Directors of Elections of the NDC to discuss systems that could be put in place to effectively compile results of the elections as soon as possible from polling station, collation and tallying centres.

Mr. Mahama underscored the need for numeracy skills and literacy to be at the core of their electioneering strategy so as to assist the NDC secure victory come 2020.

“Party agents will not be selected on how long they have been in the party, or what position they occupy in the executive. Party agents will be selected, based on their abilities and skills not only to be able to monitor the election at the polling station. They should be able to monitor the forms. So, they must have basic numeracy skills and be able to identify numbers, both in figures and in words and make sure that, the right voting figures have been put on the pink sheet.

“That is the criteria for choosing party agents not that, they are just able to identify people who come to vote. It is important, they should be able to identify if someone is an impostor but more importantly, to have the skills to ensure that the number of people who have voted is the same as the number of votes that finally end up in the ballot box”, he said.

Abolish New Ministries

Speaking in concern to the newly created ministries by the Akufo-Addo led administration, Mr Mahama said ”We are said to have achieved a world record of 125 ministers. Definitely, some of those ministries will go under an NDC government.”

According to him, the newly created positions are straining the public purse and therefore must be abolished.