Former President John Dramani Mahama has been advised to consult the Supreme Court over his eligibility to contest the flagbearership race for the 2020 election on the ticket of National Democratic Congress (NDC).

According to the Director of European Studies (CES) at the University of Ghana, Prof. Ransford Gyampo, the former president should seek the clarification from the court before moving ahead to contest for the party’s coming presidential primaries slated for December 7, 2018.

Prof. Gyampo was speaking Monday on Adom FM’s flagship Burning Issues program on the back of former president Mahama’s intention to contest for the upcoming NDC’s presidential primaries.

“The former president or lawyers around him should seek interpretations from the apex court of the land as stipulated in Article 66 of the 1992 Constitution on his eligibility to contest the upcoming 2020 general elections,” Prof. Gyampo counsels.

Prof. Gyampo said NDC as a party may be in trouble if it elects ex-president Mahama to lead them in the upcoming primaries and the Supreme Court later rules against his candidature after serving as a president for more than four years in office.

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The former President Mahama on August 23, 2018, announced his intention to contest for the upcoming presidential primaries to lead the party in the 2020 general elections. The letter was presented on his behalf by a delegation led by Ghana’s former US ambassador Daniel Ohene Agyekum.

Commenting on his chances ahead of the primaries, Prof. Gyampo said the former president should move beyond his popularity within the NDC party to attract more voters.

“The former president should by this time move beyond his popularity in the party and work on acceptance because there’s difference between popularity and acceptance” he stressed.

So far a total of eleven members of the opposition NDC have so far expressed interest in leading the party into the 2020 elections.

They include former President John Dramani Mahama, Second Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Alban Kingsford Bagbin, former Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA), Sylvester Mensah, Dr. Ekwow Spio Garbrah; a former Trade and Industry Minister; Former Vice Chancellor of the University for Professional Studies, Accra (UPSA), Prof. Joshua Alabi,  and the Cape Coast South MP, Kweku Ricketts-Hagan.

The rest are Goosie Tanoh, Stephen Atubiga, member of NDC communications team; Elipklim Agbemava, a lawyer; David Doste Kwame Kuwadah; and a banker and oil and gas consultant, Nurideen Iddrisu.

The NDC has scheduled to hold its presidential primaries on December 7, 2018, and had announced that the presidential hopefuls could start campaigning.