Maintain Mahama-Amissah-Arthur ticket — Adusei

A former Ashanti Region Deputy Minister, Mr Samuel Yaw Adusei, says  the dynamics of general elections in  the fourth republic with regard to presidential elections  favour President  Mahama’s  pairing  with his vice to lead the National Democratic Congress (NDC) for victory in 2016.

He has, therefore, reiterated the need for the NDC hierarchy to streamline things that would  cement the partnership of  President Mahama and Mr Paa Kwesi-Amissah-Arthur to enable the party to win the 2016 election hands down.

Making references to previous elections, Mr Adusei noted, “John Agyekum Kuffour’s votes appreciated in 2004 when he stoood unopposed in their primaries and maintained Aliu Mahama  as his running mate. It can be inferred that  when a party in power maintains the winning team, they are likely to retain power in the next election, just as when a party in opposition loses the next election if it maintains a losing team.”

Historical references

Giving historical references to buttress his points during an interview with the Daily Graphic, Mr Adusei said the Fourth Republic and its flag bearer -running mate dynamics had had much impact on the outcome of elections with respect to presidential elections. 

“In this regard, Nana Addo  has aggravated his misfortunes of losing the 2016 general election by retaining Dr Bawumia as his running mate for the third time.  This is because no flag bearer in opposition has been able to win power by maintaining his running mate even twice,” he explained.

 Explaining further, he said in 1992 , the NPP in opposition elected Prof. Adu Boahen as their Presidential candidate with Roland Alhassan as running mate and only  had 30 per cent in the general election, while Jerry John Rawlings,  who nominated Kow Nkensen Arkaah as running mate, won the general election by  58 per cent .                 

Kuffour and Arkaah

“In 1996, the NPP elected John Agyekum Kuffuor as their flag bearer with Kow Nkensen  Arkaah as running mate, and they had 39 per cent in the 1996 general election, and that was a significant increase in percentage from that of 1992, while Jerry John Rawlings dropped in per centage of votes to 57 per cent. 

In  1998, NPP elected John Agyekum Kuffuor for the second time, and when  he selected Alhaji Aliu Mahama as running mate, he increased the percentage of votes from 39 per cent to 48.8 per cent in the 2000 general election.

The NDC elected Prof. J.E.A Mills, who was the vice president at that time, as their flag bearer, who selected Mr Martin Amidu as his running mate.  Prof. J.E.A.Mills got 44.45 per cent in the general election,  meaning NDC dropped from 57 per cent to 44.45 per cent in terms of  percentage votes, and subsequently lost the general election after the second round,” he noted.

Mills and Alhaji Mumuni 

According to Mr Adusei, the trend continued when NDC elected Prof. Mills as the flag bearer and he selected  Alhaji Mumuni for the 2004 election, while President Kuffuor, who was unopposed in the NPP's presidential primaries in 2003, maintained his Vice President,  Alhaji Aliu Mahama. He said,  “While President Kuffuor won the 2004 general election by 52.45 per cent, an increase in percentage votes from 48.8 per cent in 2000,  Prof. J.E.A.Mills increased his votes marginally from 44.12 per cent in 2000 to 44.64 per cent.” 

More statistics 

He said when the NPP again elected Nana Addo  as their flag bearer and he maintained Dr Bawumia as running mate, he dropped from 49.13 per cent to 47.81 per cent during the 2012 general election, while President Mahama won it one touch. 

He said it was for  these reasons that the National Executive Comittee (NEC) of the NDC should use its influence to maintain  the  Mahama/Paa Kwesi Amissah Arthur ticket to secure victory in 2016.