Former Bank of Ghana (BoG) Governor pulled out of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) presidential race with a metaphorical message to the main opposition party that he will not drink from a poisoned calabash.
Dr. Kwabena Duffuor who filed his nomination with a colossal amount of GH¢500,000 and campaigned across the country, quit the presidential primaries hours before the polls because he said the NDC was not ready to conduct free, fair and transparent elections as the party’s voters register was riddled with widespread irregularities.
“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”, Dr. Duffuor stated at news conference in Accra on Friday.
It would be recalled that the former Minister for Finance under the Mills’ administration identified massive irregularities in the electoral roll and photo album in which names and pictures of females were given to males for the 13th May, 2023 presidential primaries.
After failed attempts to get the register cleaned up to be fit for purpose, Dr. Duffuor dragged NDC to court for the anomalies in it to be rectified.
However, elders of the party prevailed on him to withdraw the case with the promised that the issues would be resolved through the party’s internal processes involving a technical team comprising representatives from all the presidential aspirant.
But addressing the news conference, Dr Duffuor accused the leadership of the party of breaching the agreement and assurance given to the three presidential aspirants to resolve the issues raised about the register before Saturday’s polls.
“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 stated and announced his withdrawal from the presidential race.
Saturday’s controversial race was between former president John Dramani Mahama who was in his native Bole to cast his vote and a former mayor of Kumasi, Kojo Bonsu.
The former President eventually won the lopsided election with 98.9 percent to represent the NDC in the 2024 presidential election.
