Some supporters of the New Patriotic Party in the Ashanti and Brong Ahafo regions have joined the lobbying to partner Nana Addo as running mate for 2012. The Patriotic Concerned Youth insist a combined force of Nana Akufo-Addo and a candidate from the Brong Ahafo Region will be the best ticket for the NPP. Its preferred choice is Ghana’s former Ambassador to Korea, Nana Gabriel Nsiah Nketia. Names of key NPP personalities especially from the North have come up as potentials for the party’s running mate slot. They include 2008 choice, Dr. Mahamadu Bawumia; Deputy Majority Leader Ambrose Dery; Haruna Alhassan, Deputy Director at Metro TV and Lepowura M.N.D Jawula. The Ashanti-Brong lobbyists however say the electoral fortunes of the NPP will be improved with a running mate from the Brong Ahafo Region which geographically serves as a bridge between the North and South. They maintain that results from the region show it has always played the role of decider in the country’s electoral history, determining who wins what and overall election results. The group wants the party to break what is becoming the Christian-Muslim or Southerner-Northerner tradition for presidential election. Members believe Nana Nsiah Nketia who was also Senior Aide to President Kufour holds the key to an NPP victory. Spokesperson of the youth, Kofi Oduro believes the time is ripe to give the Brong Ahafo region a try. “If the running mate is picked from Brong Ahafo Region, it will ginger electorates there to come out in their numbers to vote for us like they did for the Progress Party in 1969 with Professor Busia”.