New Patriotic Party (NPP) member of Parliament for Manhyia South constituency in the Ashanti Region and the serving minister for energy, Dr Matthew Opoku Prempeh has once again emerged as the most preferred person to partner with the Vice President and presidential candidate of the NPP for the 7 December 2024 general election in study conducted by the Danquah Institute (DI).

This recent study from the Danquah Institute was carried out in the second week of June 2024. A hybrid technique (virtual and face-to-face interviews) was used to conduct a nationwide survey involving 1,569 respondents. The sampling, however, was not extended to the general electorate. Telephone interviews were conducted for all national, regional, and the majority of constituency executives.

Methodology

A field team conducted face-to-face interviews by engaging a sample of polling station executives in assigned constituencies. In the process, between 10 and 20 polling station executives from 91 constituencies across the 16 regions were engaged.

A semi-structured interview guide was designed for the nationwide survey to guide interviewers during the interviews with the party executives. Ten individuals were recruited to conduct the telephone interviews and were also recruited to conduct the face-to-face interviews in the assigned constituencies.

The field team conducted the interviews with the polling station executives whereas the team based in the office conducted the interviews involving the national, regional, and constituency executives. Another team conducted focus group discussions amongst party faithful in each regional capital across the 16 regions of the country on the preferred characteristics for the running mate.

Findings

Even though, the running mate position is not a contested slot, the race to be recognised for this year’s choice for the NPP has been most unprecedented in its intensity.

The DI study found that almost across all levels of the party, Dr Mathew Opoku Prempeh is the preferred choice for running mate. Interestingly, nearly all respondents again indicated that they would be willing to work with the Dr Mahamudu Bawumia’s choice even if their preferred choice is not considered.

Party executives across all levels believe that the running mate should be a male and ought to be selected from the Ashanti Region. The individual should also be resourceful, a grassroots person, and should have also served the party for a reasonable period.

In addition, and very importantly, the individual must be humble, approachable, generous, objective, and transparent in their dealings with all within and outside the party. The person must be willing to work with the Flagbearer and support the vision and ideas of the Flagbearer.

The DI Survey first posed the following question; Who do you prefer, male or female as the running mate? 84% of respondents indicated that they prefer a male, 5.7% chose a female and 9.8% said they were indifferent about the gender of the NPP running.

On the preferred region of the running mate to be chosen, the majority of respondents, 83.9%, said they prefer a running mate from the Ashanti Region. 8.4% of those surveyed said they were indifferent on which region the party’s running mate should be chosen from. The remaining 7.7% settled on one of the remaining 15 regions in the country.

Between Dr. Matthew Opoku Prempeh and Dr. Yaw Adu Twum, who would you choose as the running mate, was the next question that the DI researchers posed to the respondents. 84.7% of national/regional executives who were surveyed settled on Matthew Opoku Prempeh and 15.3% chose Dr. Yaw Adu Twum.

At the constituency level, 84.4% said they prefer Dr. Matthew Opoku Prempeh, and 15.7% Dr Yaw Adu Twum. 69.3% of polling station executives went on the side of Matthew Opoku Prempeh and 30.7% said they would like Yaw Adu Twum. Overall, 77.0% of all the respondents said Dr Matthew Opoku Prempeh is their preferred candidate for running mate and 23.0% chose Dr. Yaw Adu Twum.

Willingness to cooperate

On the subject of willingness to work with the presidential candidate’s choice of a running mate, an overwhelming proportion of the respondents (98.1%) mentioned that they were willing to work with the Dr Mahamudu Bawumia’s choice of running mate irrespective of their personal choice for the running mate.

At the constituency level, almost all the respondents (99.2%) responded that they were willing to work with the presidential candidate’s choice for the running mate.

“However, a deeper analysis of the reasons for this response indicates that respondents also insist that any choice the presidential candidate makes, must be someone who can work with all party executives, old or new.

“If the running mate is humble, approachable fair, and objective, party executives are willing to work with the person,” the DI survey report pointed out.

Sompaonline.com/Nana Yaw Boamah