Jerry Rawlings yesterday said Mrs. Betty Mould-Iddrisu, a London-based Lawyer, would have been a far better choice of a vice presidential candidate and would have attracted for the NDC more votes as compared to the MP for Bole/Bamboi, John Mahama.

Mr. Rawlings told the BBC in an interview that John Mahama’s popularity since 2004 had been whittling down, while Betty, third wife of NDC guru, Mahama Iddrisu, still has a firm grip over Ghanaians.

“I am saying that John Mahama’s image can not rise any further and the lady (Betty) was so competent and she had just gripped the nation in much the same manner that John had in 2004.

“And I think we would have had a landslide had we gone in for her. However, I think John is still going to be a hard person for these guys to beat and they know it,” Mr. Rawlings noted.

Though the NDC constitution mandates the presidential candidate to select his running mate in consultation with the party’s NEC and Council of Elders, Prof. Atta Mills, in an attempt to exercise this constitutional right has received a lot of flak from Mr. Rawlings and his wife Nana Konadu, who were both rooting for Betty Mould-Iddrisu.

Prior to the naming of John Mahama as the NDC running mate Mrs. Rawlings had hopped from one radio station to another threatening brimstone and fire, saying that Prof Mills would not be treated with kids’ gloves and that he would be told ‘something’ should he refuse to pick Betty as his running mate.

Minutes after Prof Mills had proved that he was not going in for a female running mate, the former First Couple fired their long time special aide, Mr. Victor Smith, who had openly rooted for John Mahama.

The unorthodox method of communicating the dismissal to him - via sms text message from Rawlings - was not as intriguing as the accusation of “obscene loyalty” dished out as a parting gift.

It has been barely three days since Prof. Mills, perhaps for the first time, publicly turned down instructions from the ‘owners’ of the party he wants to lead to the election and many a Ghanaian is sitting on tenterhooks awaiting the consequences.

By Halifax Ansah-Addo