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Ursula Owusu-Ekuful whose name has come up as a possible running mate to the New Patriotic Party's flag bearer has asked lobbyists to desist from mounting pressure on Dr Mahamudu Bawumia in the choosing of a running mate.

According to her, it will be ideal if a female is chosen as a running mate but she dislikes the idea of lobbying for the appointed position.

It is the will of the flag bearer and he should be given the space to choose a running mate, she said.

"Let him [Bawumia] be given the space to choose the person that he best thinks can partner him. I mean, I think it is even disrespectful for people to be lobbying as if he [Bawumia] can't make a choice," Mrs Owusu-Ekuful said while speaking in a radio interview on Accra based Citi FM on Monday morning [June 24, 2024].

Ursula Owusu-Ekuful, the Member of Parliament for Ablekuma West in Accra has always maintained that if the two leading political parties - NPP and NDC - are interested in expanding the space for female participation in politics, the two large parties should take deliberate policies to field women and more women in their strongholds and get them to Parliament and also consider to choose a female running mate.

In the radio interview, where she had been invited to speak on communication issues as Minister of Communication and Digitalisation, the host, Bernard Avle brought up the issue of the running mate of the NPP, and asked Mrs Owusu-Ekuful how she feels about her name coming up as a possible running mate. 

"Is that a position you lobby or gun for? I am absolutely against any act of seeking for such position, it is an appointed position, and I think the flagbearer should be left and given the space to decide who he thinks can best partner him in both the elections and in governance because we are breaking the 8”

“So people may speculate but me Ursula Owusu, I haven’t told anybody that I am interested in any position. If the flagbearer thinks in his wisdom that I can assist him in this position why not, but I’m certainly not to putting myself up…”

Asked if she feels the need to come out when her name is put out in the media as a possible running mate, she said, “No media person can ever say anywhere that me I have contacted them to put my name out there or anybody for that matter.

“I think the flag bearer should be given the space to choose who thinks can best partner him in this, it will be great if a female is chosen, I made that call 16, 20 years ago.