The New Patriotic Party member of Parliament for Manhyia South in the Ashanti Region and serving Minister of Energy, Matthew Opoku Prempeh (popularly known as “Napo”), has once again emerged as the preferred person to partner with the vice-president and presidential candidate of the NPP in the 7 December 2024 general election in a study carried out by the Danquah Institute (DI).

This most 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. Sampling, however, was not extended to the general electorate.

Telephone interviews were conducted for all national, all regional and a 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 ten 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 survey sessions with the party executives. Ten individuals each were recruited to conduct the telephone interviews and 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 at the office carried out the interviews involving the national, regional and constituency executives.

Another team conducted focus group discussions among the NPP faithful in each regional capital across the 16 regions of Ghana 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 as this year’s choice for the NPP has been unprecedented in intensity.

The DI study found that across almost all levels of the party, Napo (Dr Opoku Prempeh) is the preferred choice for running mate. Interestingly, nearly all the respondents also said that they would be willing to work with Dr 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 a resourceful, grass-roots person, and should also have served the party for a reasonable period.

In addition, and very importantly, the individual must be humble, approachable, generous, objective and transparent in his/her dealings with all, inside and outside the party. The person must be willing to work with the presidential candidate and to 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?” Eighty-four per cent of respondents said that they prefer a male, 5.7% chose a female and 9.8% said they were indifferent about the gender of the NPP candidate running.

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

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

At constituency level, 84.4% said they prefer Napo and 15.7% Dr Adutwum. Out of polling station executives, 69.3% were on the side of Matthew Opoku Prempeh and 30.7% said they would like Yaw Adutwum.

Overall, 77% of all the respondents said Dr Opoku Prempeh (Napo) is their preferred candidate for running mate and 23% chose Dr Adutwum.

Willingness to co-operate

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.

At the constituency level, again 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 points out.