Professor Smart Sarpong, a Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Social Research at Kumasi Technical University (KsTU), has emphasized the importance of Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia selecting a running mate with a charismatic personality to maximize his votes.
The academician suggests that the flagbearer should consider choosing a running mate from the party’s World Bank. There has been a strong demand for the flagbearer of the New Patriotic Party to select his running mate from the Ashanti region, which is considered the stronghold of the NPP.
Professor Sarpong further elaborated that party members advocating for a running mate from the Ashanti region are seeking someone who can effectively mobilize votes for the party in the upcoming general election on December 7, 2024.
For the purposes of maximizing votes, among the factors that he has to consider will include the partner that will help him maximize his votes. I am sure for those who call for a running mate from Ashanti are mindful of the fact that it has for a long time been a stronghold of the NPP and perhaps nominating a vice from that region can contribute to whipping up the interest of the voters to come out and vote for the NPP. That will be the main reason.
Apart from that anybody who can play that complementary role very well irrespective of which region he comes from provided he can complement the flagbearer and qualifies by age and by other standard definitions can be nominated.
The people who are calling for a running mate from Ashanti region are looking at the numbers and who can whip up the voters to come out and vote from the Ashanti.
During an interview on TV3’s Ghana Tonight, Professor Smart Sarpong emphasized the importance of the vice president selecting a running mate who can effectively connect with the youth, as they constitute the majority of voters. He further highlighted that such a running mate would bring additional support to the NPP’s campaign.
If the running mate is an inspirational person, if the running mate has charisma, if he is able to go down there and mobile votes and he appeals to the people most especially the youth, the person can add some good amount of complementary votes to the ticket of the flagbearer.
Apart from him being an Ashanti, he has to pick somebody who is very charismatic, somebody who can appeal to the youth population, somebody who is down to earth.
