NDC race: Duffuor acted “cowardly”, says political strategist

The political strategist Bernard Tutu-Boahene has said that Kwabena Duffuor, a candidate for the presidential nomination of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), acted in a “cowardly” manner by withdrawing from the race.

Duffuor, a former governor of the Bank of Ghana, pulled out of the NDC presidential primaries on Friday (12 May 2023), citing irregularities.

Reacting to the development on the Asaase Breakfast Show on Monday (15 May), Dr Tutu-Boahene said Duffuor was unfair to the NDC.

“We thought that the NDC, Kwabena Duffuor himself and all affected parties would come together and solve the issue, just to get the understanding that he was out of the race and has withdrawn his candidature.

“I think that it was not fair to the party from the camp of Dr Duffuor,” he said.

“In the first place, withdrawing because you have placed a concern and you have gone to court … for me, I thought that it was a brave posture in the beginning, only [for it] to turn out to be some kind of a coward display of behaviour,” Tutu-Boahene said.

Listen to Dr Bernard Tutu-Boahene in the audio clip attached below: 

Mahama re-elected

The National Democratic Congress (NDC), the largest opposition party in Ghana, voted overwhelmingly in favour of the former president John Mahama as its candidate in the next presidential election, scheduled for 7 December 2024.

Mahama won a landslide victory in the poll, garnering 297,603 votes – 98.9% of the total valid votes cast – beating his only contender, Kojo Bonsu, a former mayor of Kumasi, who polled 3,181 votes, representing 1.1% of the total valid vote.

The total of rejected ballots recorded was 4,353.

Bonsu conceded defeat hours before the declaration of the results.

“I have placed a call to H E John Dramani Mahama to congratulate him for the landslide victory,” Bonsu, the former mayor of Kumasi, wrote on Facebook.

Mahama’s main contender, Kwabena Duffuor, a former governor of the central bank, pulled out of the race on Friday.

“I wish to reiterate my commitment to the party and its grass roots,” Duffuor told reporters at a press conference. “However, my concern that the party is not ready to conduct free and fair elections is evident for all to see.

“Taking part in such would be akin to knowingly drinking from a poisoned calabash,” he said.

Despite defeats in the 2016 and 2020 elections by the incumbent president, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, the former Ghanaian leader is eyeing a return to Jubilee House, the seat of government.

Reporting by Fred Dzakpata in Accra