A Political Science lecturer at the University of Ghana, Prof Alidu Seidu says if the latest survey by the National Investigation Bureau (NIB) is anything to go by, the New Patriotic Party (NPP) has a lot of work to do ahead of the elections.

The latest survey revealed that the Energy Minister, Dr Matthew Opoku Prempeh, is widely preferred among party members to be the running mate to the NPP flagbearer, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia.

The survey engaged 5,116 NPP delegates nationwide, including national, regional, constituency, and polling station executives.

• Read also: Opoku Prempeh leads in NPP’s choice of running mate for Bawumia – NIB Survey

According to the study, Dr Opoku Prempeh secured 76.2% of the responses from the executives polled. Following him was the Minister of Education and MP for Bosomtwe, Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum, who garnered 10.16%.

Professor Seidu, this was a mere poll, and if the NPP wants to work with it to choose the Energy Minister as running mate, more work has to be done in rebranding the image of Dr Prempeh.

“This is just an opinion poll, it has useful lessons. The party may work with it and see how they can offset the weakness that has been identified by the survey. That is actually why we do surveys, so that you can look at the advantages but also the weaknesses and if that is the candidate that you wish to present then you can work on the limitations and weaknesses and see how you can rebrand the candidate,” he said.

He made these comments on Joy FM’s Top Story on June 19.

During the peak of the power crisis, when many individuals were demanding a timetable, the Energy Minister, Dr Prempeh, responded by asking those individuals to produce their own timetable if they assumed there was a power crisis.

• Read also: Energy Minister denies return of ‘Dumsor’ as he dismisses calls for timetable

Touching on this, Dr Seidu noted that with such a track record, if the Energy Minister were to contest as the running mate, the party would need a longer time to repair his image.

“If it is about the economy maybe you can pump money into the economy at the last minute even if it is artificial you can create jobs, you can do things, that we can have the quick impact before elections but when it comes to character and rebranding of character it takes time for people to trust you

“I think six months is too short a period to be able to do that kind of damage control."