Last week, the market research firm Synovate Ghana released the results of a poll they conducted in September to determine who would win the 2012 general elections if they were held in September 2011.

In conducting this poll they made a number of assumptions. In one of these assumptions, they hypothesized that the candidate for the Convention Peoples Party in 2012 would be the party's immediate past flagbearer. This assumption is clearly flawed because firstly the CPP has not yet opened nominations, let alone elected a Presidential Candidate for 2012. Also historically, over the period of the Fourth Republic the CPP has consistently produced a different flagbearer at each general election. Should this trend continue the party is likely to produce a new candidate for the 2012 presidential elections.For this reason, the 5 percent the CPP is reported to have garnered in the September 2011 poll, cannot be considered indicative of the level of support the CPP enjoys among Ghanaians. Similarly the results of the other presidential polls conducted this year by Synovate Ghana, which saw the CPP's support decline from 8 percent to 7 percent in May 2011, that were also conducted using the CPP's immediate past Presidential candidate as the presumed 2012 flagbearer can also not be considered a fair reflection of our support. While a number of party members have expressed their intention to contest for the position, the CPP does not have a presumed flagbearer as the Synovate poll would suggest, which serves to disadvantage all the other aspirants. The CPP wants all its candidates for the flagbearership to be on an equal footing during the campaigning period.

While we accept that most polls and models are based on assumptions, the use of erroneous variables can affect the quality and the credibility of the results. In this instance, of the four parties featured in the polls, only the NDC and NPP have elected their flagbearers. The CPP and the PNC are yet to follow suit.

We would like to reiterate that the CPP has not yet gone to Congress to elect a Presidential Candidate for 2012. Until we do, it is impossible to accurately gauge the level of support the party will receive at any given time between now and the 2012 general elections.

Given these inherent flaws in the Synovate Ghana poll, we would therefore encourage the general public to be discerning and not read too much into this and other media speculations. Signed General Secretary Ivor Kobina Greenstreet 0244 384 963 / 020 80 80 414