A new survey conducted by Global Info Analytics, a polling company in Ghana, has revealed Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia is slightly leading in the upcoming Presidential Primaries of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP).
The poll shows Dr Bawumia leading Alan Kwadwo Kyerematen, former Minister of Trade and Industry among NPP voters with two percent after obtaining 39 compared to the 37 obtained by the former Minister.
New Patriotic Party (NPP) Member of Parliament for Assin Central, Kennedy Ohene Agyapong, is in third place with 23 percent of the votes among NPP voters.
However, among general voters, Dr Bawumia failed to lead this time over Alan Kyerematen with the Vice President attracting 29 percent of voters compared to the former minister who attracted 30 percent.
Mr Agyapong is in third place with 23 percent of the votes.
But in the event of a runoff, the poll showed Mr Kyeremanten leading 57 percent to 43 percent among all voters and 53 percent to 47 percent among NPP voters.
The poll conducted between March 31, 2022, and April 9, 2023, shows the race to lead the NPP will be a very tight one among NPP voters.
Mr Kyerematen who resigned from his post is likely to face off with the former Minister for Food and Agriculture, Dr Owusu Afriyie Akoto and former Railways Minister Joe Ghartey who has also declared his intention to contest for the slot.
The NPP has set November 4, 2023, for its presidential primaries to elect a flagbearer for the 2024 elections.
NDC race
For the NDC race, former President John Dramani Mahama is set to clinch his party’s nomination when polls open on May 13, 2023, as he leads his closest rivals Dr Kwabena Duffuor 75 percent, according to the survey.
Former Kumasi Mayor, Kojo Bonsu is in a distant third with 8 percent of the votes.
However, among NDC affiliates, John Mahama the survey said is popular than Dr Duffuor with about 93 percent.
On the question of whether the NPP can “break the eight”, 27 percent of voters believe the party can “break-the-eight” whilst 58 percent said they cannot and 15 percent had no opinion.
“For the general elections, JDM leads all the NPP front runners. JDM leads AKK 54 percent to 40 percent with a further six percent intending to vote for someone else. JDM also leads DMB 55 percent to 38 percent; seven percent intend to vote for someone else.
“KOA is currently very competitive against JDM in what could be termed a meteoric rise in the poll. KOA now trails JDM 38 percent to 55 percent with seven percent intending to vote for someone else.
In January, KOA trailed JDM by 31 percent to 63 percentage,” it said.
The polls predicted NDC to have majority in the next parliament if elections were held today, according to the generic parliamentary poll.
“In what could be a challenge for the governing NPP which has 137 members of parliament, the poll revealed that 13 percent of NPP supporters intend to vote for NDC parliamentary candidates in December 2024, compared to five percent for the NDC. 17 percent of NPP supporters are unsure if they will vote for their candidates compared to 7 percent for the NDC.
It added “Less than half of voters support the NDC MPs’ decision to approve the president’s ministerial nominees against their party directives as 45 percent supported the approval compared to 33% who opposed the decision.
“Voters were however supportive of the decision of the NDC party to change the leadership in parliament. 42 percent support the changes compared to 29 percent who did not support and further 29% expressed no opinion about the decision. Surprisingly, there is cross-party support the decision to change the leadership as 40 percent of NPP affiliates, 49 percent of NDC and 41 percent of Floating Voters support the changes.”
The polls also said that 71 percent of citizens are of the view that, Ghana is headed in the wrong direction compared to 19 percent who believed it is headed in the right direction.
The prediction figure is unchanged compared to the poll result released in January 2023.
On the president’s job, the approval rating took a nose dive after making a recovery in January 2023.
The poll shows 65 percent of voters disapprove his performance, the figure has gone up from 59 percent in January.
Whiles 32 percent approve of his performance in January, the figure has gone down from 29 percent. But 58 percent of NPP supporters approve the president’s performance and 38 percent disapprove of it.
On the assessing the performance of the President by the NDC, 11 percent approved his job performance whilst 86 percent disapproved his performance.
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Additionally, 15 percent of floating voters appreciate the President’s performance compared to 77 percent who disapproved his performance.
The poll used a sample size of 5,836. The sample size was allocated to all the regions based on the total number of voters in each of the regions as per the Electoral Commission’s 2020 register.
A random selection of 30% of constituencies from each region was then selected and allocated the regional quota based on the total voters in each of those constituencies.
Respondents were selected randomly in the streets, homes and workplaces.