The Chairman of National Democratic Congress’ Council of Elders in South Africa, Mr. Benjamin Kofi Quashie has downplayed the chances of the NPP flagbearer-elect, Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia winning the 2024 presidential election.
Instead of putting forward a winnable candidate, according to him, the governing party were rather fixated on neutralizing the long-held perception that the New Patriotic Party is an Akan party, a tag that the party believe has made them unpopular in non-Akan areas.
Dr. Bawumia on Saturday, November 4 shrugged off keen competition from the Member of Parliament for Assin Central, Kennedy Agyapong to win the NPP flagbearership race.
The Vice President secured 118,210 of the total valid votes cast as against Kennedy Ohene Agyapong’s 71,996 votes representing 61.43 percent and 37.41 percent respectively.
Former Minister of Food and Agriculture Dr Owusu Afriyie Akoto and former Mampong Member of Parliament Ing. Francis Addai-Nimoh shared the third and fourth place had 1,459 (0.75%) and 781 (0.41%) votes respectively.
But some leading members of the opposition NDC are not seeing him as a threat or the competition to break the 8-year-cycle for his party.
“The NPP only elected Bawumia from the North to dispel the notion that the NPP is an Akan party, nothing less, nothing more,” Mr. Benjamin Quashie stated on Facebook after the declaration of NPP’s presidential primary.
As a member of the Volta NDC Communications Team, Mr. Quashie assessed: “They didn’t elect him to win the 2024 elections, that’s the honest truth and they know it.”
According to him, the NPP “know Ghana’s path to development and transformation can only be achieved under a President John Dramani Mahama administration.
“Let’s all rally behind President Mahama to ensure that the economy doesn’t only favor a select few, but all Ghanaians. It’s possible together! #JDM2024.”
Meanwhile, Ghana’s President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has said he will go all out to ensure that he is succeeded in office by Dr. Bawumia.
“I want to thank every single NPP person…I have one more task to do, and that is all my strength all my energy to help Bawumia win the elections of 2024,” he said on Saturday evening.
