NDC 2024 running mate race: Party narrows choice to 3 regions

The choice of a running mate for the National Democratic Congress (NDC) election 2024 ticket has been narrowed to three regions by the party. The regions are Central, Eastern and Ashanti, Asaase News sources within the NDC have confirmed.

The preferred candidate from the Central Region is Professor Jane Naana Opoku Agyeman. She was the running mate of Mr John Dramani Mahama in the December 2020 general election but they failed to win the elections.

Julius Debrah, former chief of staff during the erstwhile John Mahama administration (January 2013 – January 2017, is the potential candidate of choice for the NDC ticket. He hails from the Eastern Region and he is said to be tops on the list.

Kwame Awuah-Darko, a Ghanaian politician, entrepreneur and a banker, is the 3rd son of the late Nana Awuah-Darko Ampem I, who reigned as the Nkosuohene of Asante Juaben traditional area in the Ashanti Region. He is the potential vice-presidential candidate for the NDC from the Ashanti Region.

It is a widely-held view within the rank and file of the NDC that the choice of professor Jane Naana Opoku-Agyeman as running mate to John Dramani Mahama in 2020, failed to deliver victory for the NDC in the Central Region and the nation at large.

To this end, many a faithful of the NDC believe that repeating her as the party’s running mate will add very little to the party’s ticket and may not yield any political benefits to the fortune of the NDC in the December 2024 presidential and parliamentary elections.

In recent time, the argument for a running mate to John Mahama to be chosen from the Eastern Region, has dominated the political discourse in the NDC. Some NDC party faithful point out that the Eastern Region has a multi-ethnic mix and only 50% of the region are “Akans” who traditionally vote for the New Patriotic Party (NPP).

Others argue that since the current President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, who hails from the Eastern Region, will no longer be on the ballot paper, it will be strategic for the NDC to choose a running mate from the Eastern Region.

In the case of Ashanti Region, elements in the NDC believe that it is time to take the fight for power to the stronghold of the NPP by choosing a candidate from the region.

They argue further that if the NPP does not choose either their presidential candidate or running mate from the Ashanti Region, the NDC can put up a strong showing in the region should they choose their running mate from there.

Reporting by Wilberforce Asare in Accra

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