Ghana’s leading opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) has organized a three-day training and capacity building exercise for its election directors ahead of the 2020 general elections.
The NDC lost to the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) in the 2016 general election and since leaving office, it has put in place several mechanisms to regain power in 2020. Among the strategies put in place is the training of the members on the ideology of the party. This will take place at the party’s established Social Democratic Ideological Institute, pioneered by the late President John Evans Atta Mills. the three-day camp will also see to the training of electoral directors of the party.
Declaring the workshop open, the flag bearer of the NDC, John Dramani Mahama, said the party lost the 2016 election because of rigging by the then opposition NPP. The NPP had hacked into the electoral system and made collation of the ballot very difficult for the NDC.
He noted that some of the electoral directors were not properly trained to manage the various polling stations.
In view of that, Mahama therefore urged the participants to take the training programme very seriously, adding that election 2020 is not meant for the change of government alone, but rather for the determination of the future of Ghana and its citizens.
The Director of Elections, Afriyie Ankrah, said the training was not meant to rig the election in 2020, but to open the eyes of election directors as to how to collate results and protect the ballot boxes.
He noted that elections are won at the polling stations and that the NDC is marshalling strategies to win next year’s election.
More than 200 participants drawn from various constituencies in the northern sector of the country are attending the training programme. The party has closed nominations for its parliamentary primaries.
– APA
