NDC Does Not Need State Funds To Run 2016 Elections

The Northern Regional Secretariat of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) has stated emphatically that the party would not finance its 2016 electioneering campaign with state funds. 

According to the Northern Regional Director of Elections, Rashid Tanko Computer, the NDC as a social democratic party had had competent and experienced officers or executives at the National, Regional and Constituency levels, who innovatively mount up strategies to build the financial base of the party during every election, and would not fail the party in 2016 too. 

Speaking in an interview with Savannahnews in Tamale, Mr. Rashid Tanko Computer said that the NDC did not dip its hands into the state’s purse to win the 2008 and 2012 elections, and would thus not do that in the coming election. 

“NDC is a formidable party, with capable men and women who are also selfless and are ready to support the party at any times. We also know how we manage our meager resources to realize our aspirations. So it will be wrong for anybody to think that because we are the party in power we are going to use state funds to run our 2016 campaign. No! It will never happen,” Mr. Tanko Computer said.   

He said that the President, John Dramani Mahama as an anti-corruption campaigner who was bent on ridding the state of any corrupt practices would not meddle himself in such a corruptible act just because he wanted to remain in power. 

The Former Northern Regional Manager of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) insisted that the NDC would do all it could to legitimately secure the necessary resources for its campaign activities for another victory in 2016.

Meanwhile, the Northern Region NDC is currently over 1.1 billion old Ghana cedis  richer. This was realized from the just ended filing of nominations by the various parliamentary aspirants. 

Each of the 120 parliamentary aspirants of the party paid GHC10, 000 as filing fees but almost 11 of the aspirants could not go through the vetting process successfully. That notwithstanding, the Northern Region NDC has also registered over 400,000 supporters in the recent Biometric Registration exercise organized by the party. The NDC National Secretariat, according to the Mr. Tanko Computer is now doing the configuration of the membership ID Cards in Accra to determine the actual registered members and also determine how much each member would pay as dues.

On the other hand, Mr. Rashid Tanko Computer cautioned all the aspiring parliamentary candidates in the region to see the race as internal affair and desist from insults, personality attacks and any act that could affect the chances of the NDC in 2016.

He appealed to them to adhere to the party’s constitution and the guidelines or rules set out by the party for all candidates.

Mr. Tanko Computer who is also the Regional Treasurer of the NDC said that the party was sure of winning 30 out of the 31 parliamentary seats in the Northern Region. His prediction was based on what he described as the outstanding and unprecedented performance of President John Dramani Mahama in the last few years. 

According to him, the NDC had so much to show or testify about, as far as meeting the development aspirations of Ghanaians was concerned.

He therefore called for peace, unity and understanding in the NDC before, during and after the primaries schedule for November this years, 2015.