Mr. John Dramani Mahama, running mate to Professor John Evans Atta Mills, flag bearer of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) was born 49 years ago. He is married to Lordina and has seven children. Mr. Mahama started school at the Achimota Primary School and went on to secondary school at the Ghana Secondary School in Tamale. He proceeded thereafter to the University of Ghana, Legon, where he obtained a BA degree in History in 1981. In 1986, he obtained a Postgraduate Diploma in Communication Studies at the University of Ghana, Legon. He also undertook further Postgraduate Studies in Social Psychology at the Institute of Social Sciences in Moscow in 1988. Mr. Mahama was employed as Information Officer at the Embassy of Japan in the Republic of Ghana from 1991 to 1995. He moved on to join the non-governmental organization, Plan International, as Sponsorship and Grants Manager in the Ghana Country Office from 1995 to 1996. He was elected to his first term as Member of Parliament (MP) for the Bole-Bamboi Constituency on the ticket of the NDC in December 1996. Mr. Mahama served as Deputy Minister of Communications from April 1997 to November 1998 and then served as the substantive Minister of Communications from November 1998 to January 2001. He acted as Chairman of the National Communications Authority, the regulatory agency for the telecommunications and Information Communication Technology (ICT) sector from November 1998 to January 2001. Mr. Mahama was re-elected MP for Bole-Bamboi Constituency in December 2000 and again won re-election to a third term in December 2004. He was Spokesman on Communications for the Minority in Parliament between 2001 and 2004. From 2005 to date Mr. Mahama has been Minority Spokesman for Foreign Affairs. He has, from 1997 to date, also been a member of the following committees of Parliament – Appointments Committee, Communications Committee and the Standing Orders Committee of Parliament. He has been a Member of the Pan African Parliament based in Pretoria, South Africa from 2004 to date and is the Chairman of the West African Caucus in the Pan African Parliament. Mr. Mahama is a member of the Transport, Industry, Energy, Communications, Science and Technology Committee of the Pan African Parliament as well as a member of the European and Pan African Parliaments’ Ad-hoc Committee on Co-operation. He has been Director of Communications for the NDC from 2002 to date and a member of the election observer and monitoring team for the Zimbabwe Presidential elections in 2002. Source: GNA