The Managing Director of the Daily Dispatch newspaper and pollster Ben Ephson has said that despite the number of persons who have filed nominations to contest in the NPP’s flagbearer race, it is down to three persons.
Speaking on Newsfile, on Saturday, he stated that following an analysis he has done, Vice President Dr Bawumia, MP for Assin Central Kennedy Agyapong and former Trade Minister Alan Kyerematen will be the top three in that order in the upcoming primaries.
Explaining why he believes that Mr Agayapong will beat the former Trade Minister he said that “I did some work before and after the election of new delegates. Alan Kyerematen is suffering from not going to parliament 15 years ago.”
“The delegates in their early 20s and 30s were 15 years at the time, Kennedy has been an MP for 23 years, he has been moving around talking about the party, going to various conferences. I think that if Alan beats Kennedy to second place I will be very surprised,” Mr Ephson added.
He noted that the other candidates, he believes they may not feature significantly in the elections stating that during his research, Dr Bawumia, Mr Agyapong and Mr Kyermaten were the candidates delegates were interested in the most.
“Then we narrowed it down to the three just to get in terms of who will be first and the likely percentages. I am sure these three cumulatively will get about 80 or 85% of the total list, the rest will be shared among the others,” he said.
“About 1000 super delegates will select the top 5 and about 2000 thousand delegates will decide which of the top five will be the flagbeaerer and I have given you the top three.”
This comes after eight candidates filed their nomination to participate in the NPP’s presidential primaries in November.
The candidates are, Dr Bawumia, Alan Kyerematen, Boakye Agyarko, Dr Konadu Apraku, Dr Owusu Afriyie Akoto, Kennedy Agyapong, Kwabena Agyapong and former MP Francis Addai Nimo.
Meanwhile, a Political Science lecturer at the University of Ghana, Ransford Gyampo also believes that the presidential election is between the Vice President and the former Trade Minister.
“A few of them will be able to also sail through in the super delegates but generally it will be these two leading candidates who will face off in the main election.”
Source: My Joy Online
