A former Director of Communications for the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP), Nana Akomea, has said even a week can change a lot of things in an election, the reason he does not rely so much on opinion surveys.
According to him, the real poll is what happens on the election day and not what people share during surveys.
Nana Akomea was reacting to a baseline survey led by Professor Smart Sarpong, Director of Research and Innovation at the Kumasi Technical University (KsTU), which puts Dr. Bawumia as most preferred candidate compared to Mahama.
With six months to the December 07 presidential election, the survey says Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, presidential candidate for the ruling New Patriotic Party, is the most preferred person to take over as President, compared to John Dramani Mahama of the NDC.
Prof Sarpong, who is an Associate Professor of Statistics, and his team made their findings known at a press conference on Wednesday, June 5, 2024.
“For the preferred presidential candidate, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia leads with 38.9%, closely followed by John Dramani Mahama with 36.1%.
“Dr Mahamudu Bawumia leads in Ahafo, Ashanti, Bono, Central, Eastern, North East, Western, and Western North while all other Presidential aspirants put together are making up to 3.6% gains,” Prof. Sarpong noted.
But according to Nana Akomea, the real poll is what happens on the day of the election.
“My understanding is that, individual against individual, people will prefer Dr. Bawumia over John Mahama. But my attitude to polls is that these are projections. The real poll is the elections and polls or opinion surveys, 7 months to elections… and in politics, even a week is a long time so opinion surveys and polls seven eight months to elections, I don’t give much score,” he said.
He noted however, that “if the poll says I’m winning, it encourages me to keep it up, if the poll says I’m not winning, it encourages me to catch up.”
2024 Election: Bawumia leads in presidential race while NDC is most popular party – Survey
