Vice President John Mahama?

Mills chooses John Mahama as running mate
Accra, April 9, GNA - John Dramani Mahama is the running mate of Professor John Atta Mills, flag bearer of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), for the upcoming 2008 elections, Party officials confirmed on Wednesday.

Mr Elvis Afriyie-Ankrah, deputy General Secretary of the NDC, told journalists that the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the Party unanimously endorsed Mr Mahama, MP for Bole-Bamboi, at an emergency meeting in Accra on Wednesday.

Mr Ludwig Hlodze, Personal Assistant to Prof. Mills, told the Ghana News Agency that the endorsement was done by a full complement of the NEC with the blessing of the Council of Elders, including NDC founder, former President Jerry John Rawlings and his wife Nana Konadu.

Mr Hlodze said Prof. Mills would be making a formal announcement himself later this week. This corroborates information reaching the GNA that Prof. Mills would make the announcement on Thursday.

Weeks before the announcement, there had been heated public discussions about who Prof. Mills would pick from a list of at least four names that had popped up as potential running mates.

They were Mr Mahama, Mrs. Betty Mould-Iddrisu, wife of former Defence Minister Mahama Iddrisu, Minority Leader Alban Kingsford Sumani Bagbin, and Alhaji Mohammed Mumuni, running mate of Prof. Mills in the 2004 elections.

In the midst of the discussions, Nana Konadu, made a public declaration of her support for Mrs Mould-Iddrisu to the chagrin of many NDC supporters.

The Greater-Accra Women's wing of the NDC also presented a petition to Prof Mills, lobbying him to choose Mrs. Mould-Iddrisu. Some supporters of Alhaji Mumuni in Tamale also asked the flag bearer to run with a Moslem in the person of Alhaji Mumuni.