Former President John Dramani Mahama lost the 2016 elections by a very huge margin to the NPP's Nana Addo Danquah Akufo-Addo. The difference of more than 985,000 votes was a big source of shock to the elders within the party. The fact of the matter is that the elders within the party had seen that Ghanaians do not really like Mr. Mahama.

Some if them were aware of the nature of the Mahama led administration and they had raised several red flags, but the Mahama administration ignored any red flags that were raised. It was therefore not surprising that the NDC could not retain power in the 2016 general elections.

The big question is how could the NDC delegates vote for Mr. Mahama when the elders in the party did not want him to come back. Other prominent members of the NDC came to contest the flagbearership position, including Hon. Alban Somana Kingsford Bagbin, Hon. Ekow Spio Garbrah, Prof. Josua Alabi. Yet the Party's delegates voted for former president John Mahama.

We have therefore decided to scrutinize the various reasons why the NDC party voted for former president John Dramani Mahama. The following are the four factors we want to discuss here.

1. Financial strength of John Mahama:

Over the years that the mahama's had been in government, people's perception had been that the Mahama family has made enough money for themselves. We all know that it is very expensive to sponsor political campaigns as it involves cost of hotels, feeding of officials, transportation across the country, and other obvious expenses.

With the Perceived financial position of the Mahama family, the party executives and others decided to push for John Mahama to be elected as flagbearer against all the other contestants. It was quite surprising to see even top party executives openly declaring their support for the former president's candidature.

2. Compensation for 2016 disappointment:

After the 2016 general elections, the then NDC executives saw that they had not done their best to help Mr. Mahama in the 2016 polls. They had all through the period assured the president that everything was going smoothly. On the day of elections, the president was assured that he is in a comfortable lead. But at the end if the polls, Mr. Mahama had suffered the biggest electoral defeat in Ghana's fourth republican history.

The party executives who felt they had been unfaithful and disappointing to the former president therefore decided to do everything possible to bring him back, as a form of compensation for what they took him through. That is one more reason why the NDC had to bring back JM.

3. Pressure From members of parliament:

It can be recalled that before the 2016 general elections, almost all NDC members of parliament signed an undertaking to announce their unflinching support for former president Mahama's return. They did not only launch their support but they called on all delegates to vote massively for the former president.

The reasons for this move by the Party's members of parliament was because they said Mahama is the person who can do the work for the NDC to win in 2020. But actually, what people suspected was that the MPs were finding a smart way to shield certain financial burdens.

When a party is in opposition, there is always a huge burden on the members of parliament in several areas. So the MPs saw that if the party comes out with a new person apart from Mr. Mahama, they would have to start soliciting for funds to run the party's campaign and other activities.

4. Fear of losing 2020:

One major reason the NDC voted for former president John Mahama was that the party executives believe they have to win the 2020 elections, and Mr. Mahama is the most marketable person among the various contestants. The party still believed that Mr Mahama has done a lot of infrastructural projects and therefore Ghanaians will vote for him to come and continue the uncompleted projects. That has actually been their biggest campaign message now.

They therefore believed that 2020 should not be taken for granted at all. They therefore needed someone who could easily mobilise resources from party financiers, and can easily flow with the Ghanaian voter as well. They therefore decided to vote for former president John Mahama

The above four factors are among the several reasons why the opposition National Democratic Congress voted for him to become the party's flagbearer.

But in all of this, the NDC's interest is competing with the interest of the ruling New Patriotic Party's Nana Akuffo Addo.

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