Buaben Asamoa Leads Online Polls After Vetting


Online polls have become a common way of measuring the opinion of the online community on a particular issue, be it social, political or religious. In recent times, online polls have been used to single out the preferred candidate of a particular online community.

It is therefore no surprise that the administrators of the NPP Youth blog titled, The Future Is Now (nppyouth.org), decided to commission Poll Runner to conduct a poll amongst the New Patriotic Party’s online community to determine the said community’s preferred candidate as General Secretary. The Poll Runner online polling platform is noted to be secured, reliable and credible, and is widely used by renowned online pollsters.

The current online poll, which poses the question “Who would be the next general secretary of the New Patriotic Party”, has generated significant interest amongst party members online since it started on February 8, 2014. Voters have to choose between the candidates running for the position of general secretary of the NPP namely, Kwadwo Owusu Afriyie (“Sir John”), Kwabena Agyei Agyepong, Yaw Buaben Asamoa (“YB”) and Captain Nkrabea Effah-Darteh.

The race for the position of general secretary of the party officially commenced on Monday, February 10, 2014, when nomination closed and by which time it was expected that all candidates would have filed their nomination forms. Thereafter, the candidates met with the Vetting Committee of the party. A couple of days after the nominations had closed for filing, Mr. Buaben Asamoa took a slight lead in the ongoing online polls. However, after his vetting session today, YB, as he is popularly called, has taken an astonishing lead in the polls.

As at 1pm on February 13, 2014, Poll Runner had recorded 1,172 responses to the said online poll, out of which Mr. Buaben Asamoa polled 553 representing 47.18% of the total responses recorded; Mr. Agyepong polled 312 representing 26.62% of the total responses recorded; Mr. Owusu Afriyie polled 287 representing 24.48% of the total responses recorded whilst Captain Effah Darteh polled 20 representing 1.7% of the total responses recorded.

It is believed that YB’s outstanding performance in the online polls is a sign of the confidence that the online community of the NPP has in him. It is suspected that some people thought YB would not contest for the position but now with his nomination filed and a firm endorsement by the Vetting Committee today, YB is the man to watch.

It is conceded that the current online poll is nothing but an opinion poll and that its outcome may or may not be reflected by what happens on April 12, 2014, when the NPP goes to the polls. The argument is also made that most delegates, who would elect the national executives of the NPP, are not online.

However, online polls and in particular the current online poll being run by Poll Runner gives a strong indication of the preferred candidate of the NPP’s online community. It is clear that out of the four candidates, 47.18% of the NPP’s online community think YB would be the next general secretary of the NPP.

Speaking on the effect of the online polls, the YB Campaign Team stated that it would be negligent on the part of any candidate to ignore the 10% or more of the Ghanaian electorate that are online. The Team has therefore incorporated online campaigning into their grassroots campaign.

YB, who commenced his online campaign in January 2014, seems to have gained a lot of support from the NPP’s online community. On Facebook, YB currently has approximately 4,000 fans whilst his closest challenger struggles with a little of 1,000.

It is therefore not surprising that YB is ahead in the ongoing online opinion polls on who would be the next general secretary of the NPP.

2014-02-13 141030

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