Spio Will Get Less Than 1% of Votes - Sinare

A Vice Chairman of the ruling National Democratic Congress, Alhaji Said Sinare, has predicted Dr. Ekwow Spio-Garbrah, will poll less than one percent of votes at the party�s Presidential primaries in Sunyani come July 8. Dr. Garbrah, Chief Executive Officer of the Commonwealth Telecommunications Organization (CTO), has resigned as a Vice Chairman of the NDC to challenge President Mills and former first Lady Nana Konadu Agyemang Rawlings for the NDC�s flagbearer slot. But Alhaji Sinare, like many others, thinks Dr. Garbrah�s decision is most inappropriate for his own reputation. In the 2006 Presidential primaries, Dr. Spio-Garbrah polled 146 votes representing 8.7%, whilst Professor Mills polled 1,362 votes, representing 81.4 percent of the total vote cast. The other contenders, Alhaji Mahama Iddrisu, a former Minister of Defence, had 137 votes representing 8.2 percent and Mr. Eddie Annan, a businessman, got 28 votes representing 1.7 percent. Despite placing second to Professor Mills in the 2006 primaries, Alhaji Sinare is convinced that this time round, the one-time Communications and Education Minister will get less than one percent of votes, considering the fact that the Law Professor's popularity has skyrocketed tremendously. �Spio�s coming in is disastrous for him because I don�t see where he is going to get his votes from. And that is not going to affect Professor Mills at all. They (Konadu and Spio) are not going to split the anti-Mills votes but at the end of the day, I am going to predict Spio by less than one percent if he goes through with it. I don�t think he is going to get more than one percent� he said. Alhaji Sinare however failed to predict the percentage of votes Nana Konadu could make, except to say that President Mills will poll beyond 70% of the total votes cast. He said his own opinion poll amongst the delegates places the Law Professor in a better position to lead the party to victory in the 2012 General elections. He said it will be in the interest of Mrs. Rawlings to rescind her decision and rally behind the President for a decisive victory against the New Patriotic Party in 2012. �My advice to Nana is that, I wish she will step down and just back off. It�s not her time yet and the people are not accepting it. May be she doesn�t have the right people on the ground who will tell her the truth, but I will tell her in the face this is not her time. And I will say also, that if Professor Mills should emerge the winner on July 8, I would want to see the Rawlingses on board, because it will be very disastrous if they don�t come on board and the NDC wins the election. If I were the Ex - President I would have advised my wife not to do this�. Alhaji Sinare said President Mills has performed creditably in his two-year reign compared to the opposition New Patriotic Party, hence the need for him to be given another term by NDC delegates, and subsequently by the voting public come December 2012.