Former Finance Minister, Dr Kwabena Duffour, has formally withdrawn from the National Democratic Congress upcoming flagbearership contest.

Addressing a presser on Friday evening, the former governor of the Bank of Ghana stated that his decision is based on his grievances with the processes surrounding the party's upcoming primaries; especially the voters register.

According to him, the exercise has been marred by a lot of irregularities; a situation which has not been resolved by the leadership of the party.

On the back of this, he, therefore, stressed that he will no longer vie for the flagbearership of the NDC; adding he'll still keep in touch with the grassroots.

“As at this time, the party has begun distributing the ballot papers to the various regions and constituencies without our involvement.

I wish to reiterate my commitment to the party and grassroots, however my concerns that the party is not ready to conduct free and fair elections is evident for all of us to see”, Dr Duffour said.

“Taking part in such an event will be akin to knowingly drinking from a poisoned calabash.

After consulting with my support base nationwide, I have been left with no choice but to withdraw as I cannot contest in an election blatantly flawed with irregularities regardless of all my effort to draw attention to the same".

This comes hours after Dr Duffour withdrew the suit he had filed against the NDC following what he says are some discrepancies his team has identified in the party’s voters register to be used for the exercise.

At the court, the NDC contended that it has so far rectified most of the errors that have been identified by Dr. Duffuor’s team.

Lawyers for Dr Duffour withdrew the case on his behalf and the court struck out the injunction application they had filed.

Meanwhile, the NDC primaries will come off on Saturday as scheduled.