Historian and lawyer, Yaw Anokye Frimpong, has indicated that the decision by delegates of the NPP to make Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia the presidential candidate of the party has sealed the fate of the party in the 2024 general election.
According to him, with Dr Bawumia as the flagbearer the New Patriotic Party (NPP) would certainly lose the upcoming presidential election.
“I wouldn't want to say the NDC (the opposition National Democratic Congress) would win but it is easier to say the NPP would lose the elections based on several factors,” he said.
He went on to list the factors that he thinks would go against Bawumia in the 2024 election including the corruption in the current government, which he is vice president of, and the economic meltdown in the country.
“The first major factor is the corruption going on, the decay in our system. In fact, the decline in the economy, nothing seems to be moving… and which country on earth always blaming your problems on the Russia-Ukraine war? Russia-Ukraine war, Covid-19, no West African Country says that. So now you see that we are being led by a government of broken promises.
“… you would see the vice president who is the second in command to all the failures we have witnessed so far is going to carry their flag. So, with that alone, I see it as a major reason (50% of the reason) why he would lose,” he said.
The history went on to say that NPP would lose the 2024 election because it would not get the same support it got from the Ashanti Region in previous elections because of the departure of the former flagbearer hopeful, Alan Kyerematen, who he said would deny the party a lot of votes.
“They (the NPP) are wounded among the Akans. The Akan people within the NPP after Kyerematen had left, their face was Kennedy Agyapong who was buttered. So, it means that now the Akans would have to succumb to a northerner and that would reduce their votes and the reason why I am saying this is because of history,” he said.
He explained that history shows when the Convention Peoples Party (CPP) metamorphosed into the Peoples National Convention (PNC) it lost a lot of votes in the Ashanti Region because it was being led by a northerner.
“Then another thing that brings them down is the fact that the man coming from the north is also meeting somebody from the north who is a Christian. Then the Christian majority would say we are very much at home with Mahama because he has been president before; he is a Christian; and his wife is also a southerner as opposed to Bawumia and his northern, Muslim wife. So, that is why I believe NPP is going to lose the election,” he added.
Listen to his remarks below: