Renowned pollster and Managing Editor of the Daily Dispatch, Ben Ephson Jnr., has cautioned NPP gurus who have been drumming into the ears of the party’s flagbearer, Nana Addo Danquah Akufo-Addo not to consider Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia as his running mate because he failed to rake in new votes for the party in the 2008 General Elections, to desist from it since it was rather the NPP’s “arrogance” that led to their electoral defeat.
Ben Ephson opines a new candidate is likely to present unfavourable information that might jeopardize the party’s chances and the NPP should be ready to defend fresh scandals, adding that Dr. Bawumia has already received his media and public scrutiny.
A former senior minister under the Kufuor-administration, J. H Mensah, warned the Nana Akufo-Addo, not to repeat the “mistake” he committed with the choice of Dr. Bawumia in the last elections in 2008, and cautioned against satisfying tribal balance at the expense of competence. He advised the NPP flagbearer to go for a capable choice as partner irrespective of where the running mate hails from.
But speaking on Adom FM on Monday, Ben Ephson virtually endorsed the economic guru as the best to partner Nana Addo since in his estimation; there is no new hazardous information on him (Bawumia).
Giving an analysis of the 2004 and 2008 elections to buttress his call for Dr. Bawumia to be retained, the pollster stated that the NPP performed better with the Nana Addo/Bawumia ticket in 2008 than it did with Kufuor/Aliu Mahama in 2004.
“In the Northern Region in 2004, John Kufuor polled 273,897 votes (36.2%), whiles in 2008, Nana Addo had 303,406 (38.3%)…In the Upper West Region (2004), Kufuor secured 68,238 as against Nana Addo’s 81,137 votes in 2008,” he disclosed.
The senior journalist also posited that the NPP caused their own downfall in 2008, adding that they (NPP) took it for granted that winning the 2008 election was a foregone conclusion.
“NPP’s loss in 2008 was as a result of apathy and ignorance within…instead of campaigning, they rather went round shouting to the roof-tops that they had already won the election even before it was held…the controversies in the Ashanti Region;… resulted in a decline in the number of votes they polled. In the first round, Nana needed less than 70000 votes to win but he didn’t. After the party gurus had come out to apologize to the people in the region, more than 20000 people turned out to vote for them in the second round…the NPP lost in 2008 because they were arrogant and thought they had won the elections hands down,” Ben Ephson said.
