Deputy General Secretary of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Mustapha Gbande, has warned that any appointee of the incumbent party who begins to push for the presidency at this stage will face strong condemnation.

Speaking on JoyNews’ News Desk, Mr Gbande said the NDC has a unique tradition of resolving its leadership matters without unnecessary contests.

“It is only the NDC that has the history of choosing a presidential candidate without a lot of people contesting. If you check, that is our history,” he explained. “We have situations where nobody contests at all; we go and we do declarations, and we move on. So we have a way of handling our internal party issues.”

His comments come after a new poll by Global Info Analytics placed Tamale South MP Haruna Iddrisu as the leading contender to head the NDC in the next general elections in its survey specifically for the month of September.

While welcoming such research by Global Info Analytics, Mr Gbande stressed that the findings do not reflect the party’s present position.

“I want to emphasise again that we are grateful for this research; it’s very good, but that is not where the party is,” he said.

He cautioned appointees against engaging in premature presidential ambitions, describing such actions as divisive and unacceptable.

READ ALSO: Haruna Iddrisu leads NDC 2028 flagbearer race – Global Info Survey

“Ghanaians do not expect anybody—in fact, no appointee should be engaged in what we call presidential ambition. It will be an affront to our collective interest. It will be strange. In fact, it will be condemnable and unacceptable to where we are at this time.”