Veteran journalist and a pollster, Ben Ephson Junior says the National Democratic Congress (NDC) has greater advantage to win the 2024 Presidential election with John Mahama, considering the votes he garnered in the December 7, 2020 elections.
“I would be very surprised if the NDC picks somebody apart from Mahama,” the pollster told Captain Smart, host of the ‘Anɔpa Bɔfoɔ’ morning show on Angel 102.9 FM, Monday, February 8, 2021.
He added: “He got over 6.2 million votes. The main parties, NDC and NPP, are going to have headaches selecting a flagbearer. As things stand now Mahama is the foregone Candidate. He has a lot of advantages.
“Their main opponents also have a lot of disadvantages towards 2024. The only thing is whether they [NDC] will have a new running mate or not.”
The NDC will be racing for the Seat of Government in the 2024 general elections, despite the ongoing 2020 election petition hearing at the Supreme Court.
John Dramani Mahama, the 2020 Presidential Candidate for the NDC, based on expert views, is likely to lead the party again towards wresting power from the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) in the 2024 general elections.
Answering the question of Mahama’s likelihood of losing to his contenders as Party leader, Mr. Ephson is positive that he will prevail over them. According him, John Mahama has a lot supporters on the ground so anyone who contents him will lose.
“The NPP is going to navigate a very tricky path in terms of new flagbearer, and they have a history of having problems whenever they elect a new flagbearer. For this reason a lot of people will like to contend him. If they do, they waste their monies, ” the pollster elaborated.
That said, during the party’s congress to select their Presidential Candidate for the 2020 elections, John Mahama garnered 178, 877 votes from 232 constituencies, representing 93.75% of total votes.
Other likely contenders include Professor Joshua Alabi, the party’s campaign manager in the 2020 elections, who prior to that contested for the leadership position and pulled 3, 835 votes representing 2.01%.
There is also some speculations in the media that Hannah Tetteh, former Member of Parliament (MP) for Awutu-Senya West Constituency and Minister for Foreign affairs under John Mahama, will be contesting for the position. She is now Special UN envoy to African Union.
Dr. Mahamed Ibn Chambas another diplomat serving as Special Representative of the Secretary-General and Head of the United Nations Office for West Africa and Sahel, is also conjectured to be part of candidates to contest in the race.
Others are Edward Korbly Doe Adjaho, former Speaker of Parliament; Kwame Awuah-Darko, former Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Tema Oil Refinery (TOR); Horace Nii Ayi Ankrah, former Deputy Ghana Ambassador to China.
