The Member of Parliament (MP) for North Tongu Constituency in the Volta Region, Okudzeto Ablakwa, has defended the Election 2020 Running mate of candidate John Mahama, over two stalwarts of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) alleged “flop” of the party in the elections.
The two stalwarts, Dr Obed Asamoah and Yaw Boateng Gyan, both former National Chairman and National Organiser of the NDC respectively, had stated that Professor Naana Jane Opoku-Agyeman, the Election 2020 running mate for Mr. Mahama, failed the party in the said elections and did not add anything to the fortunes of the party.
Mr Gyan described the NDC’s vice presidential candidate in the 2020 elections, as a “monumental flop” which was not the first time stalwarts of the party have criticised her for contributing negatively to the fortunes of the party in the elections.
They pointed out that the decision to make Prof. Opoku-Agyeman the NDC’s running mate was distressing since they claimed she was a bad choice and added nothing to the party’s fortunes but a monumental flop as running mate to former President Mahama.
According to them, it was a big gamble and mistake to have gone to the election with the former Vice Chancellor of the University of Cape Coast and alleged that she lost the Central Region and a constituency and expressed fear it could repeat itself for the party in the 2024 general election “if former President Mahama settles on her again for Election 2024”.
They urged the leadership of the NDC to rethink picking Prof. Opoku-Agyeman once again as a running mate because there was a need for fresh thinking.
But in sharp rebuttal, Mr Ablakwa, who is also aide to the NDC Election 2020 running mate, maintained that she did a lot to the ticket of the party even though he respected the views of Dr Asamoah and Mr Gyan but disagreed with them.
For instance, if you look at the parliamentary election, you will observe that, the NDC came up from a deficit of having only four seats at the 2016 elections, and we won only four seats with a 17.4 percent share of the votes, and after Prof. Naana Opoku-Agyemang’s announcement, nomination, inclusion, and her hard work, we moved from four to 13 seats with a share of parliamentary votes of 56.52 percent,” he touted.