The Second Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin, is not the right candidate to lead the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) into the 2020 elections, a senior political science lecturer at the University of Ghana, Dr Isaac Owusu-Mensah, has said.

According to him, the NDC should look beyond the 2020 election and choose a youthful candidate to lead the party in the 2024 polls.

His comment follows reports of the emergence on social media of posters of Mr Bagbin as flag bearer aspirant of the NDC for 2020.

Speaking on the Executive Breakfast Show (EBS) on Class91.3FM on Wednesday, 3 May, Dr Owusu-Mensah said former President John Dramani Mahama was the best candidate for the NDC in the 2020 polls.

“NDC should look beyond 2020, and if they will do that I don’t think Alban Bagbin will be the best candidate for them now, because when you want to choose a candidate, there are a number of factors you look out for and that is, his constituency. Has he got a constituency within the party and a constituency within the entire country? This is a very important factor we need to look out for,” he told show host Moro Awudu.

“Posters are coming out, he is saying he doesn’t know about them but personally, I don’t think Alban Bagbin can be the right candidate for the NDC now. The best candidate the NDC has is still the former President because he has a strong constituency within the country… Also, he can analyse and discuss issues in a broader perspective because he has been president before and many other factors. But the question remains: ‘Is the NDC looking beyond 2020?’ Because I don’t think if he [Mahama] contests 2020 and loses, it would be best for him to come back in 2024. So, for me, I think the NDC should have a youthful candidate,” he added.