Vote for a winning candidate not money - Spio-Garbrah to electorates

A flag-bearer aspirant of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Dr Ekwow Spio-Garbrah is counseling delegates to the party’s national congress to elect a winnable presidential candidate for elections 2020.

He wants delegates to be cautious of likely monetary influences by some of the candidates who would try to buy their votes.

According to him, the party could only win the 2020 presidential election if it is led by a competent and incorruptible candidate.

He tells Graphic Online that some of the candidates may try to influence some voters with money, adding that “people will come to you with money.”

Mr Spio-Garbrah also notes that although everyone needs money, when the electorate begin to see candidates coming to them with money, “be rational in your decision.”

According to him, giving people huge sums of money to influence their decision to vote for you only mars one’s credibility and integrity, stressing that the electorate lose respect for “people who offer them money” to vote for them.

Mr Spio-Garbrah who was speaking to Graphic Online in Accra Monday, said he was optimistic of winning the party’s congress, pointing out that the NDC in its current state “needs Spio-Garbrah” to bring hope to the party’s angry voters who refused to vote for it in the 2016 general elections, hence, leading to the party’s humiliating defeat.

He said the party lost to the New Patriotic Party (NPP) in the 2016 elections because the voters were not happy with the party and the party did not have a message.

“How are you going to get those one-million votes from the NDC and non-NDC people,” Mr Spio-Garbrah quipped.

He said the party has a brighter chance of winning the 2020 general election if he is elected as the party’s flag-bearer.

Spio-Garbrah said as an experienced person, he does not only appeal to the NDC voters but to non-NDC members as well, hence making him the ideal candidate to bring the party back to power.

He said the electorates were also looking for somebody with the highest level of integrity, trustworthiness, honesty and who had no record of financial malfeasance or corruption which had been his reputation not only in Ghana but across the world.

Mr Spio-Garbrah will be contesting against former President John Dramani Mahama; a former Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), Mr Sylvester Mensah; a former Vice Chancellor of the University of Professional Studies, Accra (UPSA), Professor Joshua Alabi; the Second Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Mr Alban Bagbin; a banker and oil and gas consultant, Mr Nurideen Iddrisu; the Member of Parliament for Cape Coast South, Mr George Kweku Ricketts-Hagan; a member of NDC’s communications team, Mr Stephen Atubiga; a lawyer, Mr Elikplim Agbemava; Mr David Dotse Kwame Kuwadah, and Mr Goosie Tandoh, a former Special Aassistant to former President Rawlings.