Akufo Addo picks nomination form to contest election 2020

President Akufo Addo has officially begun his move to secure a second term in office.

The President picked his nomination form to contest as the NPP’s Presidential candidate in this year’s general elections.

Director of research at the Jubilee House, Victor Newman, picked the GH₵20,000- form on behalf of the President at the party’s head office at Asylum Down in Accra on Monday.

While his appointee picked his form, the President was in a diplomatic engagement at the Presidency with the Togolese Ambassador to Ghana.

He could not resist the urge to declare his optimism, telling the Togolese envoy that he was hopeful of winning the elections he first won in 2016.

“This year is the time of the Presidential election. I’m hoping to be the candidate of the ruling party here in Ghana and I’m hoping that we’ll be successful and work together for the progress and prosperity of our two nations” the President said.

There have been concerns about the seeming endorsement of the party for the President.

A section of the public has expressed reservations about the #4MoretodoMore slogan which is canvassing for another term to allow the President to stay in office.

But General Secretary of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) John Boadu said the door is open for anyone who wants to contest the President.

“We’ve indicated the processes and requirement and qualification for anyone who deem it fit to pick up a form and contest so anyone can come up and pick a form if he wants to,” he said on Joy FM in an interview monitored by theghanareport.com

He gave the assurance the party will not prevent other individuals from contesting the Presidential and parliamentary slots ahead of the 2020 elections.

All aspiring candidates in both Parliamentary and Presidential candidates have till February 20, 2020, to file nomination.

This is the second time a sitting President from the New Patriotic Party will be seeking the renewal of his party’s mandate to contest.

In 2004, President J.A. Kufuor ran unopposed when he was given a popular acclamation by the party at a national delegates conference.

In the history of the Fourth Republican constitution, former President John Dramani Mahama remains the only sitting President to have come close to being contested.

In 2015, a 45-year-old Oyarifa branch Youth Organiser of the NDC, George Boateng, picked forms to contest the then President Mahama but was disqualified by the party.