Ameyaw-Akumfi leads with 59% in new survey

Professor Christopher Ameyaw-Akumfi would win the New Patriotic Party (NPP) National Chairman race with a margin of over 59 percent, the results of a pre-polls survey by the Advocates for Good Governance and Proper Democracy (AGGPD) has said.

The group, in a statement issued in Accra on Tuesday July 12, said the survey was conducted for all eight aspirants for the NPP National Chair position and was done over a period of six months, January to June 2022, interviewing a sample size of 5000 pro-NPP-respondents which comprised of delegates including Regional Executive members, Ministers, Constituency Executives, Council of Elders and Patrons across all the 275 Constituencies in the 16 Regions of Ghana.

“The respondents, chosen at random, said they want almost a complete overhaul of the National Executive members of the party. 4,221 representing (91.7%) said they want to vote for new a National Executive because they think the current leadership style affected the 2020 General Election as compared to the 2016 Elections. 701 (7.01%) said they want to maintain only 10% of the current Executives and 78 (1.2%) said they want the party to maintain all the current leadership.

“The percentages of the National Chairmanship aspirants are as follows: Prof. Christopher Ameyaw-Akumfi 2,956 representing 59.12%, Stephen Ntim 1,102 representing 22.04%, Stephen Asamoah Boateng 345 representing 6.9%, Kwabena Abankwa Yeboah 205 representing 4.1%, Joseph Nii Ayikoo Otoo 186 representing 3.72%, Akwasi Osei Adjei70 representing 1.4%, Sammy Crabbe 69 representing 1.38% and Daavi Ama Gifty Asantewaa Ayeh 67 representing 1.34%,” the AGGPD stated.

The statement described the group, Advocates for Good Governance and Proper Democracy, as “a nonpolitical Policy think-tank” which seeks to help deepen Ghana’s democracy. It said the group consists of a team of a variety of professionals and has been in existence since 2014.

The survey recommended that the NPP should among other steps, expand the Electoral College to allow preferably all card bearing members to vote in any National, Regional and Constituency Elections to avoid vote buying.

Ameyaw-Akumfi

Professor Christopher Ameyaw-Akumfi, Board Chair for the Public Procurement Authority (PPA) was born on 21st August 1945 at Techiman in the Brong Ahafo Region.

He attended the Adisadel College in Cape-Coast for his GCE O’ and A’ Levels before entering the University of Ghana in 1965 obtaining a B.Sc. Hons in Zoology in 1969.

He pursued his Masters in Zoology at the same University and completed the course in a year in 1970. In 1972, he took a four-year study to obtain a MS in Zoology and a Ph.D. in Zoology at the University of Michigan in the United States.

On national level, he served as a member on the National Committee on Fisheries, Ghana National Oceanographic Committee, University Rationalization Committee and a member of the Board of Directors of New Times Corporation.

He is the current Chairman of Natural Science Committee of the National Commission on UNESCO and he served as the Vice Chairman for Commission III at the 28th UNESCO Conference held in Paris, France in 1995. He participated in the National Economic Forum in 1997 and served as a member of the Post Forum Committee set up to prepare a final document on the forum. He has also served as Chairman of the Sunyani Polytechnics Council.

Until his appointment as the Minister of Education he was the Director-General of the Ghana Education Service. He was the Dean at the Faculty of Science, University of Cape Coast and Policy Adviser to the Ministry of Education. In his first two years as Director -General, he and his team succeeded in getting newly recruited teachers to be paid their allowances the first month they reported for duty.

He became the Member of Parliament(M.P) for Techiman North from 2008 to 2012 and has been an active campaign team member since the birth of the party.

The statement was co signed by the group’s Executive Director, David Opoku Boahen, and its Director of Communications, Patrick Yaw Obeng Preko.